Statistics for abortion counselling

17 February 2014

This article has been migrated from an earlier version of the site and may display formatting inconsistencies.

17 February 2014

Question No. 752

Name of Person: Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song, Non-Constituency MP

Question

To ask the Minister for Health (a) in each of the last 10 years (i) how many women have sought to terminate their pregnancy in Singapore; (ii) how many women are referred to a trained counsellor for pre-abortion counselling; (iii) how many women decide not to terminate their pregnancy after undergoing counselling; and (b) what are the names of the organisations that patients are currently referred to for mandatory pre-abortion counselling.

Answer

1 The number of requests for termination of pregnancy in Singapore is appended in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of requests for termination of pregnancy in Singapore

Table caption

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Total number of requests for termination of pregnancy	12,748	12,502	11,979	12,489	12,366	12,611	12,594	12,475	12,208	10,960

Source: Termination of Pregnancy System (with effect from 2003)

2 Table 2 refers to the number of women who underwent pre-abortion counselling.

Table 2: Number of women who underwent pre-abortion counselling

Table caption

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Number of women who underwent pre-abortion counselling	9,391	9,246	9,090	9,302	9,156	9,134	8,860	8,779	8,365	7,561

Source: Termination of Pregnancy System (with effect from 2003)

3 Table 3 provides the number of kept pregnancy after pre-abortion counselling.

Table 3: Number of kept pregnancy after pre-abortion counselling

Table caption

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Total number of kept pregnancy after pre-abortion counselling	476	432	497	457	433	389	276	393	268	336

Source: Termination of Pregnancy System (with effect from 2003)

4 Currently, mandatory pre-abortion counselling is conducted by a trained counsellor (i.e. a doctor or nurse) in institutions approved to carry out Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) under the TOP Act and Regulations (which include both approved public/private healthcare institutions). For unmarried pregnant women below 16 years old, pre-abortion counselling is provided by the Health Promotion Board Student Centre.