Beijing, July 30 (Xinhua) There are about 13 million abortions performed every year in China and inadequate knowledge about contraception among women is blamed for this high rate of pregnancy terminations, the China Daily reported Thursday.

Nearly half of the women who had abortions had not used any form of contraception, Wu Shangchun, divisional director of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission's technology research centre, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

According to Wu, the real number of abortions done every year would be much higher than the figure reported, as many abortions are performed in unregistered clinics.

'The challenge of reducing (the number) of women seeking abortions in China is tough,' Wu said, indirectly referring to the country's strict family planning rules.

The report said around 62 percent of the women undergoing abortions were single and aged between 20 and 29 years old.

This shows that most of the young single women don't want to become mother and instead go for abortions in China where there are 20 million births each year.