THE IRISH FAMILY Planning Association has said that the number of Irish people who are still having to travel to the UK to access abortion healthcare services is “unacceptable”.
Statistics released by the UK Department of Health and Social Care show that 85 women gave Irish addresses when getting terminations in England and Wales in the first half of 2022.
98% of these women were more than 12 weeks pregnant and therefore ineligible for termination services here.
In contrast, abortion services can be accessed generally up to 24 weeks of pregnancy in England and Wales.
69% of the women who travelled were in their 30s and 40s.
IFPA Chief Niall Behan said that the figures that have emerged reaffirm that “the current abortion law [in Ireland] excludes some women, girls, and pregnant people from the Irish healthcare system”.
“This denial of care is degrading and discriminatory. It violates the right to bodily autonomy and self-determination. No one should have to leave the country to access abortion care,” he added.
The release of these figures follows barrister Marie O’Shea’s independent review of the Health Act 2018, which recommended that sweeping changes should be made to improve access to abortion services in Ireland, including scrapping the mandatory three day waiting period.
The review also laid out the geographical and fiscal barriers that some people are facing in trying to access services.
Mr Behan said that the Health Minister needs to act rapidly to amend the law on abortion in order to end the “harms of forced travel for abortion care”.
“The continued reliance on the UK health system to provide essential healthcare to Irish residents is unacceptable. Today’s figures, combined with the O’Shea report, provide a clear imperative that demands a political response,” he added.
The statistics released by the UK Department only relate to the January to June 2022 period.
There is a backlog on the full statistics for the year being released because of an issue with the forms the Department is using to produce statistics.
During the period of time the statistics relate to, 123,219 abortions were performed on residents of England and Wales. This compares to 105,488 over the same period in 2021.
Between January to June in 2022, there were 346 women residing outside England and Wales who accessed abortions there. Most came from Northern Ireland (28%), and a slightly smaller group of women came from the Republic of Ireland (25%).
The IFPA is a provider of sexual and reproductive healthcare in Ireland. The organisation offers a comprehensive range of services including contraception, abortion care and specialist pregnancy counselling, which support reproductive choice on a not-for-profit basis.
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