Irish abortions in Britain fall 30% since agency established
A fall to 4,600 terminations in 2008 represented a 30% decline in the amount of women from this jurisdiction who aborted a pregnancy in Britain compared with 2001, when the agencyCPA was set up.
The latest figure was revealed in the annual abortion statistics for England and Wales released by its Department for Health.
These were publicised by the Irish Examiner this week and showed in 12 months there were 86 fewer procedures carried out on women with Irish addresses.
This accounted for two-thirds of all overseas
patients admitted to abortion clinics in England and Wales in 2008.
Chairwoman of the Crisis Pregnancy AgencyCPA, Katharine Bulbulia, wrote on its website that in 2001 6,673 women travelled for terminations which represented 7.5 in every 1,000 pregnancies.
Last year, there were 4.5 abortions per 1,000thousand pregnancies.
“I note that the figures have decreased for women giving Irish addresses in British UK abortion clinics for the seventh successive year since the agency’s establishment in 2001,” she said.
The Crisis Pregnancy AgencyCPA compared the figures with those of the Netherlands, which it said was the only other notable jurisdiction in terms of where Irish women were travelling to for abortions.
In 2008, 330 Irish women went to the Netherlands to end their pregnancy. In 2007, 451 did so.
Ms Bulbulia said that the CPA will continue to look at other countries to see if destination trends change.
“We know that the only other country that women are currently travelling to in significant numbers for abortion is the Netherlands. The Agency will continue to monitor the numbers travelling to other jurisdictions into the future,” she said.
