Dozens of woman are having abortions following fertility treatment

Data released under the Freedom of Information Act has shown that an average of 80 abortions are carried out in England and Wales a year on women who have undergone IVF treatment.

Doctors have said they are surprised at the figures considering the expense and difficulty that many couples go through when having fertility treatment.

However critics said women were treating babies like 'designer goods'.

Some women said they were pressured into IVF by their partners and others said they aborted their pregnancy after their relationship broke down.

Around half of the abortions are carried out for women aged between 18 and 34, who are less likely to suffer complications in their pregnancies or conceive babies with abnormalities, raising the question that they may have had abortions for 'social reasons'.

Four in ten women who undergo IVF are under the age of 35.

Around 12,000 women give birth in Britain following fertility treatment and about 200,000 abortions are carried out a year in England.

Prof Bill Ledger, a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates fertility treatment, said: "I had no idea there were so many post-IVF abortions and each one is a tragedy."

The figures were released by the HFEA and show that in some of the cases the fertility treatment had been funded by the NHS.

Selective reductions, where some of the foetuses in a multiple pregnancy are terminated to reduce the risk to the children and mother, are included in the figures.

Ann Furedi, head of the BPAS, formerly known as the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said it was likely that every doctor carrying out abortions had treated at least one woman who had IVF treatment only to change her mind when it was successful.

She said: "For infertile people, overcoming the problem becomes a goal in itself."

Ann Widdecombe, a former Conservative MP, said women who underwent IVF and then terminated the pregnancy for social reasons were treating babies like 'designer goods'.

She added that if the law were applied properly these women would not be allowed to terminate.

Most abortions are carried out under section C of the Act which says that the pregnancy was not beyond 24 weeks and that continuing the pregnancy would put the woman's life at greater risk than terminating it or would involve greater risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the woman.

A spokesman for the HFEA said: “IVF is not a procedure to be undertaken lightly and we know what it means personally to the many women who make this decision every year.

"The HFEA does not regulate terminations of pregnancies and has no powers in relation to activities outside those described in the Act. All patients who undergo IVF are assessed, as are the implications for any child that might be born, in advance of the decision to treat." ‬

IVF does not raise breast cancer risk

A new research has dispelled fears that In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) may elevate women's risk of developing breast cancer.

The nationwide study in the Netherlands found that the fertility treatment has no effect on the disease.

Although no firm link between IVF and breast cancer has been established, some boffins are worried about the potential effects of fertility drugs used to stimulate the ovaries so that eggs can be collected and fertilised, reports Times Online.

These expose the body to high levels of oestrogen, a female hormone to which some breast tumours are sensitive.

The research, which was led by Alexandra van den Belt-Dusebout, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, should reassure women considering fertility treatment that it does not pose a breast cancer risk.

The study was presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in San Francisco last month.

In the study, the Dutch team used a national registry to investigate more than 25,000 women who received IVF or other fertility treatments between 1980 and 1995. Almost 19,000 of the women had had IVF, while the other sub-fertile women had had different treatments or none.

There was no statistically significant difference in breast cancer incidence between either group as a whole and the general population. There was a slight increase in breast cancer risk among the infertility patients who had been followed up for the longest periods - 15 years - but this was accounted for by the size of their families.

The study also compared women who had had different numbers of IVF cycles, and found no relationship between extra cycles and breast cancer risk.