A UK Government review has revealed that abortion complication rates are likely much higher than has been previously reported [1].
The review, undertaken by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), analysed Hospital Emissions Statistics (HES) for England from the years 2017 to 2021. They compared the complication rate derived from this analysis to the currently reported complications rate derived from the Abortion Notification System (ANS) based on data provided by abortion providers, which are reported in the annual abortion statistics.
From 2017-2021, the review found the average abortion complication rate was 1.52 per 1,000 abortions using data derived from the ANS as used in the annual abortion statistics. However, the review also found the average abortion complication rate over the same time period using data from HES was 4.06 , over 2.6 times higher. When the HES data analysis also includes incomplete abortions, the complication rate over the same period is 18.16 per 1,000 abortions. This is over 11.9 times higher than the ANS-derived complication rate used in the annual abortion statistics which does not include incomplete abortions.