ALMOST one-third of women who had an abortion in Scotland last year had previously terminated a pregnancy.
Official statistics showed there were 12,471 abortions carried out in 2011. The number of terminations is down from 13,903 in 2008 and has now fallen for the last three years.
However, 29% of women who had an abortion in 2011 had already had at least one termination, up from 25.4% in 2005.
A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said: "The scale of repeat abortions is alarming and reveals an underlying problem in behaviour and attitudes. Repeat abortions are a repeat of a tragic and misguided choice."
Last year, 3616 abortions were performed on women who had already had at least one termination.
In the NHS Tayside area, 35.5% of women who had an abortion had previously ended a pregnancy, while in NHS Highland the rate was 21.9%.
A Scottish Government spokesman said the fall in the abortion rate was encouraging, but ministers were disappointed in the number of repeat abortions.
He added: "This is a priority area for the Scottish Government and by encouraging the uptake of longer-acting reversible contraception for those who have terminations, we are looking for an impact on the number undergoing a repeat termination.
"We are funding research with the Medical Research Council to explore a number of aspects of terminations."
Over the three years between 2008 and 2011 the abortion rate among girls and women under 20 has dropped by 22%.
Figures for last year showed under-16s had 285 terminations, while the total for those aged 16 to 19 was 2418. The number of abortions carried out on women between the ages of 25 and 34 rose between 2010 and last year, from 4269 to 4388. A total of 461 women aged 40 or over had an abortion in 2011.
The number of abortions carried out on women from the most deprived areas was more than double the number on those from the most affluent places.
Women from the worst-off areas had 3553 terminations compared to 1678 for women from the least-deprived communities.
Almost two-thirds were carried out early in the pregnancy, with 65.5% performed before nine weeks, up from 62.2% in 2009.
The majority of terminations, 93%, were carried out on the basis the woman was not more than 24 weeks pregnant and the pregnancy would involve risk to their physical or mental health.
A total of 136 were carried out as there was a risk the child would be seriously handicapped.
The Scottish Government spokesman said: "It is encouraging to see the abortion rate in Scotland has fallen for the third year and the rate of abortion in Scotland continues to be lower than in England and Wales.
"We have been working with NHS boards and local authorities to tackle unintended pregnancy and we are moving in the right direction.
"We are pleased to see the percentage of women who had their abortion before nine weeks' gestation has risen, as termination earlier in pregnancy provides better health outcomes for the woman and reduces any risk from the procedure.
"NHS board areas are working hard to achieve Healthcare Improvement Scotland's target that at least 70% of terminations are carried out by nine weeks' gestation."
He stressed the vital role of education in reducing the rate of unplanned pregnancies.
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