To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 4 March 2010, Official Report, columns 1393-94W, on abortion, whether his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated studies which demonstrate a direct causal link between its expenditure on contraception services in the last two years and the trend in the abortion rate over the same period; and if he will make a statement. (322101)

The Department has not commissioned or evaluated any studies which seek to demonstrate a direct causal link between recent investment in contraception and the decline in abortion rates over the same period. However, research undertaken in the United States found that 86 per cent. of the reduction in the US teenage birth rate between 1995 and 2002 was due to increased contraceptive use Santelli et al, “Explaining Recent Declines in Adolescent Pregnancy in the United States: The Contribution of Abstinence and Improved Contraception Use”, American Journal of Public Health, January 2007, vol. 97, No. 1. A copy has been placed in the Library.