300 women travel to UK for late abortions

Almost 300 women from outside the UK travelled to have late abortions here in 2004.

Health Minister Caroline Flint said that there were 417 abortions carried out in England and Wales on women of more than 18 weeks’ gestation who were from outside of these nations, with 95 of these from Scotland and 28 from Northern Ireland. Of the remaining 294, the majority - 164 women - came from the Republic of Ireland where abortion is illegal. A further 71 were from Italy, 26 from Denmark, and five from Germany, with 21 from other EU countries and seven from elsewhere in the world.

PA News, 13 January 2006