Apparently, fewer women are opting for abortion in Great Britain. The figure of the number of legal abortions has come down to 195,296 from 198,499 in 2007. The number of under-16 girls going in for this procedure has also come down as compared to the previous year.

Health minister Dawn Primarolo opined that improved access to contraception had played a "vital role" in preventing teenage pregnancy. "Last year we invested £26.8m and have made a further £20.5m available this year to improve women's access to contraception, and help reduce the number of abortions and teenage pregnancies," she said.

These figures come as a pleasant surprise to the health charities that had predicted more than 200,000 abortion cases this year, keeping in mind the trend of steadily rising figures since 2002, when it was 175,932.

However, FPA director, Audrey Simpson seemed to be skeptical about the whole scenario and said, "We don't know how accurate these statistics are.”

Simpson believes that women are giving false addresses and they are travelling to countries outside of the UK for abortions.