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LONDON - More than a hundred teenage girls a month go into a hospital or clinic to have an abortion for the second time, new figures from Britain's Department of Health reveal.
They include at least one girl under 18 who has had at least six abortions.
The statistics on multiple abortions in England and Wales will provide fuel for those demanding a tightening up of abortion laws.
They reveal that last year, 1316 girls under 18 had their second abortion, and 90 were on to their third.
There were 44 women who by the end of last year had undergone eight or more abortions, 20 of whom were under the age of 30.
The table, posted on the Department of Health website, obscures information on women under 30 who have had multiple abortions, to avoid the risk that a small number of teenagers could be identified.
But it can be deduced from the tables that 14 women had had their sixth abortion before the age of 25, and that at least one was under 18.
Those who work directly with pregnant teenagers blamed the figures on poor sex education.
Simon Blake, chief executive of the charity, Brook, which offers free sex advice to the young, said: "It is critical that women have access to safe, legal abortions.
"The response to these figures should not be to judge those women who need to have repeat abortions, but rather to ask why they have found themselves in that situation.
"The small number of young women who need to have two or three abortions before they reach the age of 18 have clearly been failed by our education and health systems."
Clare Rayner, president of the Patients' Association, said: "There isn't anybody I know who isn't disturbed by the thought of having to go through an abortion. If a child gets pregnant, it's a personal tragedy.
"There is just so much opposition to go to sex education."
The Liberal Democrat health spokesman, Norman Lamb, said: "Irrespective of one's views about abortion - whether one favours a tightening of abortion laws or a relaxation, these figures are very sad and indicate that in this country we're not really getting it right.
"The idea of women on their eighth abortion is not welcomed by anyone, least of all by the women themselves. We have got work to do to improve sex education, critically among teenagers."
Despite the disturbing figures, the Department of Health believes it is making headway in reducing unwanted pregnancies among teenagers.
The department's strategy is based on persuading teenagers to delay their first sexual experience, but it also offers advice on health and contraception to "sexually active" 13 to 16-year-olds, who are estimated to be between a quarter and a third of the total.
A Department of Health statement attached to the figures says: "The strategy is working. Between 1998 and 2004, the under-18 conception rate has fallen by 11.1 per cent and the under-16 rate by 15.2 per cent.
"Both rates are now at their lowest levels for 20 years."
In total, there were 186,416 abortions performed in England and Wales last year, including more than 60,000 on women who had had a previous abortion. Half were under 25.
About 84 per cent of the operations were performed by the National Health Service, and 89 per cent were during the first 13 weeks of pregnancy.
- INDEPENDENT
