Around a third of Servicewomen have chosen to end a pregnancy, according to the first study of abortion in the UK Forces.
More than 420 female personnel responded to a survey by the Academic Department of Military General Practice.
It found that 29 per cent had undergone a termination, with 82 per cent of those occurring during service and 11 per cent while deployed.
Researcher Capt Victoria Kincaid (RAMS) said that although the one-in-three figure broadly mirrored civilian statistics, the study showed how Servicewomen faced additional difficulties when seeking an abortion.
“If you’ve had a medical abortion you might be bleeding heavily for a couple of days and there were comments about people passing products in shared bathrooms or even in a Portaloo on exercise,” the medical officer said.
Barriers to troops accessing proper care included stigma, having to ask permission to leave camp in initial training and concerns about prescribed pills going missing in post rooms.
More than half didn’t tell their medical chain of command, meaning they were also at risk of being deployed or having to do mandatory PT.
Capt Kincaid said: “We are so grateful to the personnel who provided their voices – they won’t go unheard. We will create change from what they’ve told us.”
The data will be used to educate commanders, produce information leaflets for troops and inform new policy.
For more on this topic visit the Women’s Health page of the My Healthcare Hub on Defence Connect.
