Abortion: Neural Tube Defects

(asked on 7th July 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the average number of terminations of pregnancies affected by neural tube defects at the 20-week scan.


This question was answered on 21st July 2015

There is no data routinely collected on whether a pregnancy is planned or unplanned. However, the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles estimated that 16.2% of pregnancies are unplanned with a further 29% categorised as ambivalent i.e. where the woman was neither actively planning or seeking to avoid a pregnancy.

No assessment has been made of the relationship between unplanned pregnancies and the high risk period for folate levels and the closure of the neural tube at 27 days gestation. In line with NICE guidance, women intending to become pregnant should be informed that dietary supplementation with folic acid, before conception and throughout the first 12 weeks, reduces the risk of having a baby with a neural tube defect.

The International Classification of Disease (10th edition) includes Anencephaly, Encephalocele and Spina Bifida as Neural Tube Defects. In 2014, 442 abortions were performed because of Neural Tube defects; 152 (34%) of these were performed at 20 weeks gestation or over.

Information on the socio-economic group for women having abortions is not collected centrally.

Reticulating Splines