Flintshire abortion rates fourth highest in Wales and rising official figures show

Flintshire has the fourth highest abortion rate in Wales according to figures from the Office of National Statistics 

Of the 22 Welsh local authority regions, three North Wales counties feature in the top four.

There were 41,567 conceptions in Wales in 2013 of those 20.1 per cent led to abortion,that same as the previous year.

In Flintshire for the same period there were 2,088 conceptions, 453 were terminated compared to 424 the previous year up 1 per cent.

The figures show over a fifth of all conceptions in Flintshire were terminated in 2013, with abortion rates in the County greater than the Welsh average of 20.1 per cent and higher than the combined England and Wales average of 21.2 per cent.

Terminations in Flintshire are at the highest level since 2009 rising 2 per cent, by comparison terminations in England and Wales between 2009 and 2013 rose by 0.2 per cent.

Flintshire termination rates (shown as a percentage) between 2009 and 2013.

Abortion rates amongst girls aged under 18 years old stands at its highest level in Flintshire since 1998 – 53% of the 75 registered pregnancies (40) were terminated, 8.5% higher than the Welsh average, teenagers in Wales are less likely though to have an abortion than those in England the figures show.

Conception rates amongst under 18’s have however almost halved in the County between 1998 and 2013.

Merthyr Tydfil has seen the greatest year on year increase in terminations (3%) in north Wales Conwy and Anglesey saw the largest increase closely followed by Wrexham.

Eight of the 22 Welsh Counties saw a decrease in the number of terminated pregnancies between 2012 and 2013 Carmarthenshire saw 1.9 per cent fewer abortions in the 12 months to 2013, Caerphilly has the lowest rate in Wales with 17% of all pregnancies terminated.

Comparison by County ranked by 2013 termination rates

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The percentage of conceptions leading to abortion varies by age group.

Women aged 30 to 34 have had the lowest percentage of conceptions leading to abortion.

In 2013, 13 per cent of conceptions to women aged 30 to 34 in England and Wales resulted in an abortion compared with 21 per cent to women of all ages.

Over the last two decades the percentage of conceptions leading to an abortion has generally increased for women aged under 20 but decreased for women aged 35.