Fewer women in England and Wales underwent abortions in 2009 than in 2008, official figures have shown.
A total of 189,100 abortions took place in 2009, compared with 195,296 in 2008.
There were 17,916 abortions performed on girls under 18, a decrease on 2008's figure of 19,387. Of these, more than 1,000 were on girls aged 14 and under, with under 16s making up nearly 4,000.
The figures also show how many abortions the women who underwent the procedure in 2009 had previously had. Of the 18,100 total, 2,637 had previously had three abortions, 779 had had four, 214 had had five, and 48 had had seven or more.
And 1,341 of the girls under 18 who had had abortions in 2009 had already had at least one in previous years.
There were also fewer terminations carried out on women who did not live in England or Wales, down to 6,643 from 6,862 in 2008.
Women aged 10 to 21 were the most likely to have abortions in 2009, with 33 in every 1,000 undergoing the procedure. This is compared to a rate of 17.5 in every thousand for woman aged 15 to 44.
Overall, 94% of abortions were funded by the NHS, of which 60% were carried out privately under NHS contracts.
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