Public Health is examining abortion data in more detail, after a recent rise in the number of women seeking abortions.
The 2025 Annual Report into the Sexual Health and Reproductive Health Strategy shows 127 abortions were carried out during 2024 – a 10-year high.
Young women aged between 25 and 29 had the most abortions, while the number of women and girls under the age of 20 seeking a termination continued to drop. That’s been attributed to the continued provision of free contraception for under 21s.
Dr Nicola Brink said Public Health can’t explain why the number of abortions being carried out has increased, nor why young women are more likely to have one.
There were likely to be multiple reasons, she said.
“The choice to have an abortion is a personal one and women are not required to explain their motivations for discontinuing a pregnancy,” Dr Brink said.
“Therefore, it is not possible to fully explain increases or decreases in the numbers of procedures year-to-year. However, we do know that this is not due to an increase in abortions due to fetal anomaly.”
“That said, Guernsey may be mirroring a trend seen much more widely than just here, which is for increasing numbers of abortion procedures over time,” she added.
“Several factors may be influencing women’s reproductive choices including household finances, the economic outlook for raising a child, and healthcare availability including cost of contraception.”
Express has examined the data in more detail HERE.
Dr Brink said Public Health will audit the available data to try and work out why abortion rates are rising.
This includes the number being carried out generally, and the increase in the number of abortions being carried out later in the first trimester compared to other places.
“The audit is to try to understand why, for the last four years, a lower proportion of abortions in Guernsey have been carried out before 10 weeks gestation and a higher proportion between 10 and 12 weeks, compared to nearby jurisdictions,” she explained.
“Earlier abortions generally carry a lower risk of complications and are regarded as an indicator of prompt access and high service quality. We are examining all steps in a typical pathway for a woman seeking abortion care to identify if and where any delays or barriers to access could be causing procedures to occur at a later gestation, on average, than in other places.
“The audit is also to help us understand why a higher-than-expected proportion of abortions are done surgically in Guernsey relative to medically. This is likely to be linked, at least in part, to gestation at time of procedure.”
Dr Brink cautioned that the data for 2024 may vary once population data is confirmed.
She also reiterated that Guernsey’s abortion rate remains below that seen in England and Wales, even with the recent increases.
A breakdown of the most recently available abortion data can be found HERE.
