Number of Irish women seeking abortion in UK continues to fall

The number of Irish women seeking abortions in the UK has fallen for the 11th consecutive year.

Figures released today from the HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme show that there has been a 40% decrease in the number of women giving Irish addresses at UK abortion clinics since 2001.

6,673 women with Irish addresses attended UK abortion clinics in 2001 - compared to over 3,900 women in 2012.

The HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme gathers statistics to examine the patterns of women travelling from Ireland to countries other than the UK for abortion procedures.

The Netherlands has emerged as the only other jurisdiction to which women from Ireland are travelling for abortion procedures in significant numbers: 461 in 2006, 451 in 2007, 351 in 2008.

Those number fell dramatically to 134 in 2009, 31 in 2010 and 33 in 2011.