The number of abortions by British women in their 40s has increased by a third in this decade. Experts say that this is because of the rise in short-term relationships among older women. Increased sexual activity without contraception has led to unwanted pregnancy and abortion.

Last year, 8719 women over 40 years of age went for abortion, out of which, 650 were above 45 and 21 were above 50. There have also been cases of women who have consciously got pregnant but have opted for abortion after screening showed high chances of birth-related problems.

''These figures are extraordinarily depressing - when we see high rates of teen pregnancy we often end up debating whether ignorance is to blame, but you would think that by the age of 40 women would have some idea how things work”, says Josephine Quintavalle of the Pro-Life Alliance.

Anne Furedi, Chief Executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said that women are generally sexually active for a longer period. Furedi added that women consider themselves active in sex even if they are not in a relationship, something that wasn’t seen a decade ago.

Most abortions have taken place in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, at the time of the first ante-natal screening.