London - A family planning charity has seen abortions at its clinics soar by 20 per cent in the first two months of this year - a rise it is blaming on the millennium celebrations.
Marie Stopes International said the impact of the Christmas and New Year festivities was just beginning to be seen in thousands of unwanted pregnancies.
Experts also blamed the lack of access to emergency contraception, such as the morning-after pill, over the extended millennium holiday on the abortion increase.
The charity said that if the figures from its clinics in the Britain were reflected in the overall statistics, an extra 9,000 women may undergo abortions in the first quarter of this year.