Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of pregnancies they estimate are unplanned; and what assessment they have made of the relationship between unplanned pregnancies and the high-risk period for blood folate levels and closure of the neural tube at 27 days of gestation.
It has been estimated that between 2010 and 2012, 55% of pregnancies in Britain were planned, approximately 16% were unplanned, and 29% were categorised as ‘ambivalent’.
The Government has not made an assessment of the relationship between unplanned pregnancies and the high risk period for blood folate levels and closure of the neural tube.