New data has reveals that from 2010–2014, Irish women from North and South of the border have travelled to England and Wales for 25,000 abortions.
This works out at an average of 100 terminations a week for women from both Northern Ireland and the Republic. The information has been obtained from the Department of Health in the United Kingdom by Belfast–based journalism project Detail Data.
Where are the procedures being carried out?
In total 19,947 girls and women from the Republic of Ireland and 4,652 from Northern Ireland travelled to the UK for terminations between 2010 and 2014. Almost half (45 per cent) of all of the terminations took place in Manchester; 11,116. Of these, 7,182 (30 per cent) took place in one clinic; Marie Stopes International. In Liverpool 4,462 abortions involving women resident in Ireland were recorded. London had the third highest number with 3,267 terminations across 10 clinics. Abortions cost from £400 (€550) to £1,500 and Manchester can be quicker and cheaper to get to than some other cities in England.
In its figures Detail Data has cautioned that the numbers are only for those that have given addresses in Ireland, meaning the actual figure could be higher. Not all women give their home addresses and some Irish women may travel to other countries for terminations. Some resort to sourcing abortion pills online which has raised health concerns among experts.
The data also includes girls under the age of 16 – and shows 152 from the South and 69 from the North made the journey.
Reaction
“These findings once again prove that restrictive abortion laws in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland don’t prevent women and girls from having abortions,” said Amnesty International My Body, My Rights campaigner Grainne Teggart
“Abortions not being lawful doesn’t mean that women and girls don’t have abortions, it means that they either resort to desperate, sometimes dangerous, measures or they seek those services elsewhere at great financial and emotional expense.”
Amnesty International Ireland executive director Colm O’Gorman said “Abortion laws in both jurisdictions fall desperately short of even the minimum standards required by international human rights law. They violate the human rights of women and girls, forcing those who can travel to go overseas and seek compassionate, professional care outside their own country.
“It’s time for governments north and south to end the hypocrisy of laws which criminalise women at home and don’t even meet their stated aim of preventing abortions. They can no longer turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses caused by those very same laws.”
Current legislation
Currently abortions are only available in Northern Ireland if a woman’s life is at risk or if there is a risk of a serious long–term effect on her physical or mental health.
Abortion in the Republic of Ireland is currently illegal, except in circumstances where there is a real and substantial risk to a mother’s life.
Detail Data is a partnership between The Detail, an investigative website, and NICVA, a representative body. It is financially supported by the Big Lottery Fund and Atlantic Philanthropies.
The full dataset from Detail Data can be examined here.