New statistics reveal the number of abortions performed in New Zealand rose slightly last year

Stats NZ says there were 462 more induced abortions than in 2016.

That's a total of 13-thousand-285 abortions last year - compared with 12-thousand-823 in 2016.

54 percent of all abortions were for women aged in their 20s.

And the median age of women having an abortion in 2017 was 27 years - up from around 24 years, 10 years earlier.

However, the overall number of abortions has been generally decreasing since 2003.