Right to Life UK is marking the 59th anniversary of Britain’s Abortion Act with an estimate that 11,256,470 abortions have taken place across the United Kingdom since the law received royal assent in 1967.
The pro-life organization published the estimate on Oct. 27, the anniversary of the Act’s passage. Its memorial page says the figure represents a projection through midnight that day and equates to approximately one abortion every two minutes, or 34 every hour.
Right to Life UK says its calculation uses official historical figures and assumes that the daily abortion totals for England and Wales in 2024, 2025 and 2026 remained at the 2023 level. For Scotland, the projection uses the 2025 daily total for 2026. The organization cautions that the actual cumulative number could be higher once newer official data becomes available.
The latest government statistics cover 2023 and record 278,740 abortions carried out in England and Wales, the highest total since the Abortion Act was introduced. The Department of Health and Social Care reports that 277,970 procedures involved residents of England and Wales, 26,593 more than in 2022. The figures are published in the government’s official statistical commentary.
Medical abortions accounted for most procedures in 2023. Government data says 200,745 abortions, or 72% of the total for residents of England and Wales, involved both medications being taken at home. Home use was permitted for early medical abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains available under the current rules.
The publication of newer figures has been delayed. The government’s abortion statistics collection says data for 2023 was affected by delays in collecting and validating notification forms, and that the delay has also affected publication of figures for 2024 and 2025.
Right to Life UK said the anniversary campaign includes videos and information about the estimated total, while calling attention to what it describes as the loss of unborn lives. The underlying law received royal assent on Oct. 27, 1967, as recorded in the text of the Abortion Act 1967; the Act came into force in England, Scotland and Wales on April 27, 1968.