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June 21, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Abortions rose to record levels in the U.K. and at least one American state in 2020 as abortion pill use skyrocketed during the COVID-19 crisis.
Recent data from the British government earlier this month revealed that 210,860 abortions were committed in England and Wales in 2020 – the highest number since the U.K. broadly legalized abortion in 1967. The statistics, published by the Department for Health and Social Care, noted an increase of 1,341 abortions from the previous record high in 2019.
There were 3,083 abortions sought due to disability and 693 of those were related to Down syndrome diagnoses, Right to Life UK said. “There were also 35 abortions where the baby had cleft lip or cleft palate, an increase of 105.88 percent from 2019,” the group added.
Pro-life advocates pointed out that the spike in abortions came as British Health Secretary Matt Hancock introduced ‘DIY’ abortions last March amid the pandemic.
“This significant rise in abortions coincides with the temporary measures allowing ‘DIY’ home abortions in the UK,” Right to Life UK said. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children likewise slammed the “catastrophic loss of unborn life arising from the government’s dangerous policy on abortion,” which resulted in a “devastating surge in abortion numbers.”
DIY abortion involves abortionists mailing abortion pills after a phone or virtual consolation rather than actually examining pregnant women. The top abortion pill, mifepristone, poses even greater risks to women than already-dangerous surgical abortions, and has been linked to at least 24 maternal deaths and thousands of potential injuries, though it can be reversed within 72 hours.
Britain’s authorization of DIY abortion unsurprisingly has been followed by reports of possibly illegal abortions, excruciating complications, and at one least police investigation into a murder of a late-term baby. The U.K. nevertheless is considering making the rule change permanent.
Eighty-two percent of abortions in England and Wales last year were chemical abortions (committed with abortion pills), up from 73 percent in 2019, according to health department statistics.
Abortion figures for Scotland depict a similar trend. Official figures from Public Health Scotland last month show abortions rising to a 12-year high in 2020. The country’s abortion rate jumped to 13.4 from 13.2, reaching the highest rate recorded since Scottish abortion restrictions were loosened in 1991, the Christian Post reported.
The number of abortions in Scotland (13,815) was the second highest on record, Right to Life UK said, again blaming the increase on DIY abortions.
‘Tele-abortion’ in the United States
“At-home abortion” or “tele-abortion” also proliferated in the United States last year despite attempts by the Trump administration to mandate in-person pickup of mifepristone.
Research has shown that women requested “self-managed” chemical abortions at a 27 percent higher rate in the early months of COVID-19 in the United States while the amount of women trying to obtain abortion drugs through TelAbortion, a virtual abortion program active in certain states, doubled last spring.
Among states that have released abortion data for 2020, even those with in-person abortion requirements have been hit with a massive abortion pill surge. Kansas, for example, reported a record abortion spike, as in the U.K., with the largest yearly increase since 1995.
Though Kansas is one of 19 states that effectively bans tele-abortion, according to the pro-abortion Kaiser Family Foundation, abortions still rose 9.1 percent, killing an additional 626 babies. Nearly all of the increase can be accounted for by chemical abortions, which continued apace throughout the COVID-19 crisis as Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly kept abortion clinics open as she shuttered churches and businesses.
Arkansas, which mandates in-person dispensing of abortion pills and has achieved the lowest state abortion rate in decades, still saw an upturn last year, again driven by mifepristone.
Other states were likely hit harder. Iowa, with relatively strong pro-life laws but no ban on abortion pills by mail, has been one of the handful of states involved in the TelAbortion program. Even before COVID-19, Iowa experienced a stunning 24 percent rise in abortions between 2018 and 2019, largely due to chemical abortions. States that have participated in TelAbortion also include Georgia and Montana, though Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte was one of several Republican governors to enact bans on tele-abortion this year.
The Biden administration has accelerated abortion by mail, lifting FDA dispensing rules in April and moving U.S. policy in line with that of the U.K. The shift is set to last as long as COVID-19 is deemed a pandemic, though Democrats and the abortion lobby are fighting to enshrine it.
For emergency medical help to reversal a drug-induced abortion, immediately call the Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) hotline at: (877) 558-0333.