Over 90% of British women want a ban on sex-selective abortion, with 70% wanting the time limits for abortion to be lowered and 59% wanting the limit lowered to 16 weeks or lower, according to a new poll of 2,008 adults conducted by ComRes. Although abortion is theoretically illegal in British law, doctors are exempt from prosecution for abortions performed on unborn children under the gestational age of 24 weeks, provided certain conditions have been met.
Of the over 185,000 abortions carried out in England and Wales in 2015, over 180,000 were conducted on the reported basis that abortions would be less damaging to mental health than the continuation of pregnancy. This is despite 2011 guidelines from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists that women considering abortions are no more likely to suffer adverse psychological effects if they continue their pregnancies.
