Half of teenage mothers in Scotland opted to abort their babies in 2019, Public Health Scotland (PHS) figures have revealed.

Of the 3,814 women under 20 who became pregnant, 50.3 per cent had an abortion.

The PHS report noted how the proportion of teens opting to abort had “increased gradually over time and is now the more common of the two outcomes”.

Responding to the report, The Christian Institute’s Scotland Officer Nigel Kenny said the statistics were “nothing short of a tragedy”.

Earlier this year, PHS announced that there were 13,815 abortions in Scotland last year – the highest in the country since records began in 1968.