Sources · Abortion on request
This house would make abortion legal on request up to 24 weeks.
Fact bank v1 · 12 cards
- ABR-01True
“Having an abortion is safer than giving birth.”
Confirmed: a US study found 8.8 deaths for every 100,000 live births, compared with 0.6 deaths for every 100,000 legal abortions. That makes giving birth about 14 times more likely to end in death.
The study looked at the US from 1998 to 2005. It also found that health problems in general were more common with giving birth than with abortion. Serious problems after abortion are rare: a California study of 54,911 abortions found major complications (needing a hospital stay, surgery or a blood transfusion) after 0.23% of them, about 1 in 436. In England and Wales in 2023, 1.1 in every 1,000 abortions had a complication recorded before the patient left, though problems that happen later may not be counted.
“The risk of death associated with childbirth is approximately 14 times higher than that with abortion.”
Obstetrics & Gynecology (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·The comparative safety of legal induced abortion and childbirth in the United States (Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2012)Government / parliament · 1 Feb 2012 ↗Further sources for this card
- ABR-02False
“Having an abortion raises a woman's risk of breast cancer.”
False. A major analysis in The Lancet pulled together data from 53 studies in 16 countries. It found that pregnancies ending in abortion do not increase a woman's risk of breast cancer.
The most reliable studies wrote down abortions before anyone had cancer. They included 44,000 women with breast cancer. In those studies, women who had had an abortion were not more likely to get breast cancer. Their risk score was 0.93, where 1 would mean no difference. Some other studies asked women about past abortions only after they got cancer. Women with cancer may have been more open about past abortions, and that made those studies misleading.
“Pregnancies that end as a spontaneous or induced abortion do not increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer.”
The Lancet (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Breast cancer and abortion: collaborative reanalysis of data from 53 epidemiological studies, including 83 000 women with breast cancer from 16 countries (The Lancet, 2004)Government / parliament · 27 Mar 2004 ↗ - ABR-03Mostly false
“Having an abortion causes depression and other mental illness.”
Mostly false. A Danish study used national health records. It found that first visits for mental health care were about as common in the year after an early abortion (in the first three months of pregnancy) as in the nine months before it: 15.2 against 14.6 for every 1,000 women per year.
The study only included women with no record of mental health problems. Women who had abortions did have more mental health visits than women who gave birth, but that was already true before the abortion, so the abortion does not seem to be the cause. Visits did rise after giving birth, from 3.9 to 6.7. A US study that followed 956 women for five years found that women turned away from an abortion at first had more anxiety and lower self-esteem than women who had one. Over time the two groups became alike.
“The finding that the incidence rate of psychiatric contact was similar before and after a first-trimester abortion does not support the hypothesis”
New England Journal of Medicine (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Induced first-trimester abortion and risk of mental disorder (New England Journal of Medicine, 2011)Government / parliament · 27 Jan 2011 ↗ - ABR-04False
“Most women come to regret having an abortion.”
False. A US study followed 667 women for five years after an abortion and found no sign of regret growing over time. An estimated 99.0% felt it had been the right decision five years later, and 97.5% did one week after.
Relief was the most common feeling, even after five years. Some women did feel sadness, guilt or regret, but on average these scored low, under 1 on a scale from 0 to 4. Those feelings were stronger for women who found the decision hard or felt judged by people around them. Both good and bad feelings faded over the first two years. The women were recruited at 30 US clinics between 2008 and 2010.
“We found no evidence of emerging negative emotions or abortion decision regret”
Social Science & Medicine (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Emotions and decision rightness over five years following an abortion: An examination of decision difficulty and abortion stigma (Social Science & Medicine, 2020)Government / parliament · 1 Mar 2020 ↗ - ABR-05Mixed
“Banning abortion doesn't reduce the number of abortions; it just makes them unsafe.”
Partly true. The WHO says that around the world, limiting abortion does not cut the number of abortions, and unsafe abortions are more common where laws are very strict. But after 14 US states brought in bans, a 2025 study found about 22,180 more births than expected. This suggests some people who wanted an abortion could not get one.
The US study found births were 1.70% higher than expected in states with complete or 6-week bans, with bigger rises among people on Medicaid (US health cover for people on low incomes) and people without college degrees. Worldwide, the WHO says around 45% of abortions are unsafe, based on figures from 2010 to 2014. A study in The Lancet Global Health found people seek abortion even where it is restricted, and that unplanned pregnancies are more common in those countries.
“Evidence shows that restricting access to abortions does not reduce the number of abortions”
World Health Organization·Abortion (fact sheet)Intergovernmental body · 8 Dec 2025 ↗Further sources for this card
- JAMA (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine) · US Abortion Bans and Fertility (Bell et al., 2025) ↗
- The Lancet Global Health (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine) · Unintended pregnancy and abortion by income, region, and the legal status of abortion: estimates from a comprehensive model for 1990-2019 (Bearak et al., 2020) ↗
- ABR-06True
“Abortions in England and Wales are at a record high.”
Confirmed: there were 277,970 abortions for residents of England and Wales in 2023, the highest number since the Abortion Act came in. That was 11% more than in 2022.
The rate was 23.0 abortions for every 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, also the highest since the Act. 42% of people having an abortion in 2023 had had at least one before, up from 37% in 2013. These are the latest yearly figures from the Department of Health and Social Care. The figures for 2024 and 2025 have been delayed and are not out yet.
“there were 277,970 abortions for residents of England and Wales in 2023, the highest number since the Abortion Act was introduced”
Department of Health and Social Care·Abortion statistics commentary, England and Wales: 2023Government / parliament · 15 Jan 2026 ↗ - ABR-07True
“Almost all abortions happen early in pregnancy, and abortions after 20 weeks are rare.”
Confirmed: in England and Wales in 2023, 89% of abortions (248,250) happened at 2 to 9 weeks. Abortions at 20 weeks or more have stayed between 1% and 2% of the total every year since 2013.
4% of abortions happened at 10 to 12 weeks and 5% at 13 to 19 weeks. For residents of England and Wales, just 1% were at 20 weeks or later. For the 770 people who came from outside England and Wales, 31% were at 20 weeks or later, but they made up only 0.3% of all abortions.
“248,250 (89%) of the 277,970 abortions were performed at 2 to 9 weeks gestation”
Department of Health and Social Care·Abortion statistics commentary, England and Wales: 2023Government / parliament · 15 Jan 2026 ↗ - ABR-08Mostly false
“In England and Wales, abortion is already available on request up to 24 weeks now that it has been decriminalised.”
Not quite. In England and Wales, an abortion is legal when two doctors agree it meets a ground in the Abortion Act 1967. Up to 24 weeks, the usual ground is that continuing the pregnancy would risk the woman's physical or mental health more than ending it. A 2026 law means a woman no longer commits a crime by ending her own pregnancy, at any stage, but it did not change the time limits or the two-doctor rule.
The 2026 change came in through the Crime and Policing Act 2026. It is still a crime for anyone else to carry out an abortion outside the rules of the 1967 Act. The claim is not completely wrong in practice: 98% of abortions in England and Wales in 2023 were done under that health ground (ground C). But by law, two doctors must still agree. Since 2020, Northern Ireland has had its own rules, which allow abortion for any reason up to 12 weeks.
“does not make any changes to the gestational time limits for an abortion, the requirement for two registered medical practitioners to agree to the procedure”
House of Commons Library, UK Parliament·Changes to the law on abortion in England and Wales (House of Commons Library research briefing)Government / parliament · 3 Aug 2026 ↗ - ABR-09Mostly true
“Babies born as early as 22 weeks can now survive.”
Some do, with intensive care, but most do not. In a large US study of babies born in 2013 to 2018, 30.0% of 22-week babies who got active treatment survived to leave hospital. Counting every baby born alive at 22 weeks, 10.9% survived.
At 23 weeks, 55.8% of babies who got active treatment survived. Of the surviving children born before 27 weeks who were checked at about age 2, 21.2% had severe problems with their development and 29.3% had moderate ones. The figures come from 19 US university hospitals. UK law lowered the abortion limit from 28 to 24 weeks in 1990, and the UK government describes 24 weeks as the currently accepted point at which a fetus is considered viable.
“Survival among actively treated infants was 30.0% (60/200) at 22 weeks and 55.8% (535/958) at 23 weeks.”
JAMA (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Mortality, In-Hospital Morbidity, Care Practices, and 2-Year Outcomes for Extremely Preterm Infants in the US, 2013-2018 (JAMA, 2022)Government / parliament · 18 Jan 2022 ↗ - ABR-10Unsupported
“A fetus can feel pain by 20 weeks of pregnancy.”
There is no good evidence for this. A major review in JAMA in 2005 found a fetus is unlikely to feel pain before the third trimester, the last three months of pregnancy. The brain connections thought to be needed for pain only start to appear between 23 and 30 weeks.
Feeling pain needs conscious awareness. Reflexes, like pulling away, are not proof, because they can happen without it. The JAMA review also found that brain-wave readings suggest premature babies probably cannot feel pain in this way before 29 or 30 weeks. Not every expert agrees. In 2020, two researchers with different views on abortion argued that the science cannot fully rule out fetal pain before 24 weeks. So the question is not fully settled, but there is no proof of pain at 20 weeks.
“Evidence regarding the capacity for fetal pain is limited but indicates that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester.”
JAMA (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Fetal pain: a systematic multidisciplinary review of the evidence (JAMA, 2005)Government / parliament · 24 Aug 2005 ↗ - ABR-11Mixed
“Most people back legal abortion, so the public supports abortion on request up to 24 weeks.”
Most people do back legal abortion in general, but support drops later in pregnancy. In a 2022 US survey, 43% said abortion should be illegal at 24 weeks and 22% said legal, with 18% saying it depends. In 2026, 60% of US adults said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
In the 2022 survey, 44% said abortion should be legal at six weeks and 34% at 14 weeks. The question described 24 weeks as a point when a healthy fetus could survive outside the womb with medical help. 44% of those who said illegal at 24 weeks then said it should be allowed if the woman's life is in danger or the baby would have severe disabilities. In a survey of 27 places around the world in 2023 and 2024, the typical (median) place had 66% backing legal abortion in all or most cases, and at least 75% did in nearly every European country surveyed. Those global figures say nothing about stages of pregnancy.
“Americans are about twice as likely to say abortion should be illegal as to say it should be legal at this time point”
Pew Research Center·America's Abortion QuandaryIndependent research institute · 6 May 2022 ↗ - ABR-12False
“Most abortions happen because of rape, a danger to the woman's life or a serious problem with the baby.”
False. In a US study of 954 women seeking abortions, the most common reasons were money (40%), bad timing (36%), reasons to do with their partner (31%) and needing to focus on children they already had (29%). Most women (64%) gave more than one reason.
An earlier US survey of 1,209 abortion patients found something similar: 74% said a child would get in the way of school, work or caring for others, and 73% said they could not afford a baby. In England and Wales in 2023, 98% of abortions were under ground C, a risk to the woman's physical or mental health greater than ending the pregnancy. 1% were under ground E, a substantial risk the baby would be born seriously disabled. The other grounds, including those about a risk to the woman's life, made up 0.4%.
“included financial reasons (40%), timing (36%), partner related reasons (31%), and the need to focus on other children (29%)”
BMC Women's Health (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Understanding why women seek abortions in the US (BMC Women's Health, 2013)Government / parliament · 5 Jul 2013 ↗Further sources for this card
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