Women are being forced into paying for private abortions because the NHS is failing to meet their needs, according to campaigners.

Long waiting times, unsympathetic doctors and lack of funding mean women are choosing to pay for a termination, a survey for the Pro-Choice Alliance found.

Private abortions accounted for 26% of the total carried out in England and Wales last year.

But 47% of the women who paid for an abortion had originally sought help from the health service, the survey found.

And of the 53% who bypassed the NHS entirely and went straight to a private clinic, 44% said they chose to do so because they knew they would have to wait too long for a free termination.

Some women were told they would have to wait up to eight weeks for an abortion.

Another survey highlighted the wide regional differences across the country in NHS abortion provision.

Some health authorities severely restrict abortions - partly because of funding problems.

In some areas more than 90% of terminations are carried out on the health service, while in others less than half are.

Some regions refuse to perform abortions on women less than ten weeks pregnant in what campaigners say is a bid to force them into the private sector.

Baroness Gould, chair of the all-party parliamentary pro choice group, which is discussing the surveys, said: "These obstacles and delays in women's access to NHS abortion services are unacceptable and discriminatory.

"If any of these women chose to go ahead with their pregnancy they would certainly not be refused NHS treatment so refusing them an abortion is simply punitive and judgmental."

In 28% of cases, the GP did nothing to help the woman, saying they were opposed to termination. British Medical Association guidelines say that a doctor opposed to abortion should refer to another GP.

The Pro-Choice Alliance, an umbrella group for charities and campaigners, is calling for abortion on request throughout the UK and wants a maximum three week waiting time from a woman first seeing a GP to having an abortion.