The 58th anniversary of the Abortion Act coming into force has renewed debate over the scale of abortion in Britain, with campaigners on both sides pointing to recent record figures and the long arc of a law that has shaped British public life since 1968. According to a press release issued this week, Right To Life UK says that 11,105,671 abortions have taken place across the UK since the Act came into effect.

The latest official figures show that abortion remains at historically high levels. In England and Wales, there were 277,970 abortions for residents in 2023, the highest number recorded since the law was introduced, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.

The trend has not been confined to England and Wales. Public Health Scotland reported 18,710 terminations for the year ending December 2024, also the highest figure on record there. In Northern Ireland, the Department of Health published statistics in December 2025 showing 2,899 abortions in 2024/25, up from 2,795 the year before.

Those figures have sharpened the political and moral argument around the Abortion Act, which received royal assent in 1967 and came into operation the following year. The cumulative totals point to a grave national failure in the protection of unborn life and in the support offered to women facing crisis pregnancies.

Right To Life UK marked the anniversary by calling for legal reform and greater help for expectant mothers, arguing that the figures should be treated as evidence of a long-running social and moral crisis.