Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many complications were reported after (a) medical abortions and (b) surgical abortions in (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019.

The number of complications reported after medical and surgical abortions in 2017 and 2018 is available in the attached table.

Data on complications should be treated with caution as it is not possible to fully verify complications recorded on HSA4 forms. In addition, complications that occur after discharge may not be recorded.

Abortion statistics for 2017 and 2018 are available at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/abortion-statistics-for-england-and-wales-2018

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/abortion-statistics-for-england-and-wales-2017

The Code of Practice outlined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 prohibits the pre-release of official statistics before the due date of publication. Data on complications in 2019 is still being collected and requires full quality assurance prior to release. Data for 2019 is due to be published on 11 June.