More than 100 unborn babies were aborted last year by women in the UK expecting twins, triplets or even quintuplets but who wanted to give birth to fewer children, official figures disclosed to The Telegraph show.
Over the past few years, there has been a sharp rise in the number of women terminating one foetus or more but continuing with a pregnancy and bearing at least one other child.
Experts say that the increase in so-called “selective reductions” has largely been caused by a rise in multiple pregnancies following IVF treatment.
The disclosure is likely to provoke renewed debate over the practice in which IVF clinics implant several embryos in order to improve a couple’s chances of having a baby.
Department of Health figures, released under Freedom of Information law, show that 59 women aborted at least one foetus while going on to give birth to another baby in 2006. In 2010, the number had risen to 85.
During 2010, 101 foetuses were aborted in this way – as some mothers aborted two or more unborn babies.
Of the 85 women undergoing selective reductions last year, 51 were reducing a pregnancy from twins to a single baby, up from 30 four years before.
There were also 20 abortions to reduce triplets to twins and nine procedures to take a pregnancy from triplets to a single child.
The other terminations counted in the 2010 data were three mothers who reduced four foetuses to two, and two mothers who reduced five to two.
More at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8981504/Abortions-to-reduce-multiple-births-on-the-rise.html