Peter Boylan, an obstetrician, said women were seeking terminations earlier in their pregnancies

Legal abortion services may have led to fewer women than expected terminating their pregnancies, a leading obstetrician has said.

Peter Boylan said that there have been “not as many” abortions as predicted since January 1, when terminations became legally available.

The leading clinical adviser on the introduction of abortion services said he believed this may be because women now have more choice than if they had been travelling to the UK.

“The numbers that doctors are dealing with are not as many as many people had predicted. I’m not really sure why that is, but it may be that once women have a choice, they are under less pressure,” he said.

“Of course, formerly if a woman made a decision to go to the UK,