Increase in abortion pills seizures

Ten packages discovered in 2016

A record number of illegal home abortion kits were seized by customs officers last year.

Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request show a rise in the number of termination tablets intercepted entering the Island in recent years.

Ten packages, each containing medicine meant to terminate a pregnancy, were discovered being smuggled in 2016.

That's more than double the amount seized the year before.

And in the five years prior, no such packages were found by officers.

It comes just weeks after official figures from the UK Department of Health revealed 88 Manx women traveled to England for an abortion last year - a drop on the year before.

Abortion pills, which are illegal in the Island, can cause serious health problems if taken, including the death of the mother.