The number of terminations carried out in Scotland reached its highest level on record in 2025, according to figures cited by Right To Life UK.

The pro-life campaign group said Public Health Scotland statistics released on May 26 showed that 18,783 abortions were carried out in Scotland last year, an increase of 6,648, or 54.78 per cent, compared with 12,135 in 2016.

The rate per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 rose from 11.9 in 2016 to 17.6 in 2025, according to the group. It said there was also a rise in repeat abortions, from 7,672 in 2024 to 7,927 in 2025, accounting for 42.2 per cent of all abortions performed last year.

Lanarkshire recorded the largest regional increase over the past 10 years, with abortions rising from 1,426 in 2016 to 2,650 in 2025, an increase of 85.83 per cent.

Right To Life UK said the figures showed 277 disability-selective abortions in 2025, a 61.05 per cent increase compared with 172 in 2018. It also said the number of abortions carried out between 18 and 20 weeks’ gestation rose from 92 in 2018 to 138 in 2025.

The group has called on the Scottish Government to reinstate in-person consultations before at-home abortions, arguing that such appointments would help ensure gestational age is accurately assessed.

Catherine Robinson, a spokeswoman for Right To Life UK, said: “It is a great tragedy that 18,783 lives were lost to abortion in Scotland last year, the highest number on record.

“Every one of these abortions represents a failure of our society to protect the lives of babies in the womb and a failure to offer full support to women with unplanned pregnancies.”

She said the rise had accompanied the fifth full year in which abortion services outside a clinical setting had been operating in Scotland.

“The clear solution here is the urgent reinstatement of in-person appointments,” she said. “This would prevent women’s lives from being put at risk from self-administered late-term abortions.

“We are calling on the Scottish Government to urgently reinstate in-person consultation for home abortions.”

Right To Life UK also criticised proposals arising from a review of abortion law in Scotland commissioned under Humza Yousaf when he was First Minister. The group said the review had recommended removing the 24-week abortion time limit and allowing abortions on social grounds up to birth.

It said such changes would leave Scotland with “one of the most extreme abortion laws in the world” and urged MSPs to introduce policies that increased protections for unborn children and support for women facing unplanned pregnancies.

The intervention follows continued debate over abortion law in Scotland. In September 2024, delegates at the SNP National Conference voted in favour of a resolution calling for “the right to abortion” to be enshrined in a future constitution of an independent Scotland.

The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Act also came into force on September 24, 2024, creating buffer zones around facilities where abortions are carried out.

Right To Life UK said polling published in the Daily Telegraph showed that 71 per cent of women supported reinstating in-person appointments before at-home abortions, while nine per cent favoured the status quo.