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Bereavement leave to be extended to miscarriages before 24 weeks

Bereavement leave to be extended to miscarriages before 24 weeks
Photo Priscilla Du Preez | Unsplash
ET staff writer
ET staff writer
20 July, 2025 1 min read

Parents who experience a miscarriage before 24 weeks of pregnancy will be entitled to bereavement leave under a planned law change.

Pro-lifers have welcomed the plan, but point out the irony of MPs having just decriminalised women procuring their own abortion up to the point of birth.

Meanwhile, the latest official statistics show a record high of almost three in ten conceptions in England and Wales ended in a legal abortion in 2022.

The percentage was 29.7 per cent, up from 26.5 per cent a year earlier and 20.8 per cent in 2012, according to the Office For National Statistics (ONS).

ET staff writer
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