THE number of women who terminated pregnancies in South Worcestershire fell by just one last year, after a big fall the year before.

The latest figures released by the Department of Health showed there were 659 abortions in 2005 compared to 660 in 2004.

Last year, the Worcester News reported how hard work and the increase in sex education had seen a dramatic fall in 2003. The drop in teenagers under the age of 18 who had abortions fell from 19 in every 1,000 to 12. The latest numbers show this has remained unchanged.

This is, however, still lower than the national average of 17.8. The biggest age group to have abortions were the 20-24 year olds, with 28 out of every 1,000 doing so. The next highest number was 18 to 19-year-olds, at 23 per 1,000, and then 25 to 29-year-olds at 18 out of every 1,000. Under 18s came in fourth.

In the Wyre Forest area, the overall rate rose, from 224 to 233, a rate per 1,000 women of 13. There were 337 abortions in Herefordshire. There were no comparison figures for previous years.

Sheena Stewart, the manager for Worcestershire Sexual Health Service, was not disheartened by the small decrease in South Worcestershire.

She said any decrease in abortions was down to hard work increasing education about contraception such as condoms and the Pill.

She added: "Any reduction in abortions is to be welcomed. It shows that women of all ages are making sensible decisions about whether to start a sex life or what contraception to take.

"If someone does get pregnant for whatever reason, we do want them to have good access to abortion and I believe that is available.

"So the fact that abortion rates have fallen - and women know they can terminate a pregnancy if they want to - is good.

"We don't have the latest birth figures for South Worcestershire, but it would be interesting to compare those with abortion figures to see if people really are learning from their education."

The number of women having an abortion nationally increased from 185,700 in 2004 to 186,400 last year according to figures published by the Government this week.

A total of 84 per cent of abortions were funded by the NHS in 2005.

Of those, 89 per cent were carried out at under 13 weeks' gestation, and 67 per cent at under 10 weeks.