Almost 18 thousand women interrupted the pregnancy in 2024

The number of women who chose to stop pregnancy in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy increased by 5.5%to almost 18,000 in 2024. Last year, 28 of the 40 Local Health Units (ULS) performed this procedure.

The data are contained in a monitoring of the Health Regulatory Entity (ERS) released Thursday on access to Voluntary Pregnancy Interruption (IVG) at the National Health Service (NHS) between 2022 and 2024.

According to the regulator, in 2024 17,807 IVG were performed by woman’s choice in the first 10 weeks of gestation. The number represents a 5.5% increase compared to 2023 and 13% compared to 2022.

According to ERS data, the number of IVG rose from 15,762 held in 2022 to 16,880 in 2023 and 17,807 last year, most of which made in NHS hospitals, 67.2%. In this period of three years, most users who resorted to SNS establishments to perform IVG made it at their own initiative.

In 2024, the IVGs were performed on average at 7.4 weeks of gestation. In NHS hospitals, almost all of the procedures was performed using the drug method.

The data sent by the DGS to ERs also indicate situations where the time interval between the prior consultation of women and the interruption of pregnancy was equal to or less than three days, which “constitutes an indication of non -compliance” of the period of reflection.

« For the accumulated period analyzed, there were 13,596 situations in which the time between prior consultation and the IVG was equal to or less than three days, with most cases to be observed in the official establishments of the NHS, » warns ERS.

The average time between prior consultation and IVG intervention was 6.7 days in 2024, slightly higher than 6.5 of 2022 and 6.3 of 2023.

According to the data, the total number of entities to perform this procedure in mainland Portugal remained virtually unchanged.

“At the end of 2024, of the 40 NHS hospital entities eligible for IVG, 28 were being carried out, one more than in 2023,” says the regulator’s findings, based on the data provided by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).

In practice, there were 30 NHS hospitals to perform IVG in late 2024, since at the ULS of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro the procedure was performed at the hospitals of Vila Real and Chaves and ULS do Algarve in the hospitals of Faro and Portimão.

ERS also said that, by the end of 2024, there was a private clinic with whom nine NHS hospitals, which did not make the IVG using their internal capacity, had established protocols to perform this procedure.