6 in 10 women who had abortion say childcare costs put them off pregnancy

Sign up for the Independent Women email for the latest news, opinion and features Get the Independent Women email for free Get the Independent Women email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. A report, carried out by campaign group Pregnant then Screwed, found almost one in five women said childcare costs were the main reason they decided to terminate a pregnancy. Three in four Black women said childcare costs were behind their decision to have an abortion, while the same proportion of single parents said the same. Joeli Brearley, Pregnant then Screwed’s founder, said: “Childcare costs are pushing families into poverty and forcing women to terminate wanted pregnancies. “Rather than just admitting that if we want to have affordable, quality, sustainable care and early education in this country, we need to invest substantially more into the sector than we are doing at the moment.” Mr Leitch said his organisation, which represents, nurseries, pre-schools, and registered childminders, among others, has found the government’s plans to reduce radios “will not only fail to lower the cost of early years places, but in any settings that do adopt the new ratios, will drive down quality and worsen the already catastrophic recruitment and retention crisis the sector is already experiencing.” While Ms Brearley argued government plans on ratios “will have little to no impact on costs, instead it will only serve to create a lower quality system, further deterring women from using our childcare provision”.