Abortion Statistics
in ireland
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Abortion Statistics in Ireland
For decades, most Irish abortions happened in England and Wales following the passage of the Abortion Act 1967. Any abortion performed in England and Wales under this legislation required the completion of a HSA4 form, which included the address of the woman receiving the abortion. Here are the statistics on the number of Irish residents annually who had abortions in England and Wales from 1968 to date. The statistics show that there was a considerable drop in the number of Irish abortions in the years before the introduction of abortion in Ireland. Following the enactment of an abortion regime in Ireland in 2019, the number of women receiving abortions in England and Wales fell dramatically as most women had abortions in Ireland.
No. of Irish abortions in England and Wales by Year
No. of Irish abortions in the Netherlands by Year
No. of Irish abortions in the Netherlands by Year
After England and Wales, the most common foreign country where Irish women received abortions has been the Netherlands. Dutch government agencies do not record abortions on Irish women specifically. There are official records on Belgian, Spanish and German women having abortions in the Netherlands, but none for Irish women. The data in this chart contains historical data released by the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, which was inputted by individual Dutch abortion clinics and is not reliable.
No. of notifications received for abortions in Ireland
These figures show the number of notifications made to the Minister for Health from 2014 to date. They are supposed to be authoritative for the number of abortions performed in Ireland, however, they are inaccurate as evidenced by the larger proportion of abortion reimbursements claimed by GPs in each year except 2019 (Table 4).
The figures from 2014-2018 consist of notifications of abortions made to the Minister for Health under the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013. The figures from 2019 onwards relate to the number of notifications of abortions made to the Minister for Health and included in the report reported issued by the Department of Health under the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018.
No. of notifications received for abortions in Ireland
No. of claims made by General Practitioners
No. of claims made by General Practitioners
This data shows the number of claims made by General Practitioners related to abortion under the HSE’s Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) scheme. “Combined termination procedure” refers to an abortion completed by a GP.
Three Irish hospitals: number of abortions performed per year
These three Irish hospitals are the only hospitals in Ireland which publish, in their annual reports, the number of abortions performed per year. Data on abortions performed in the Rotunda, the Coombe, and the National Maternity Hospital (Holles Street) are found here.
Three Irish hospitals: number of abortions performed per year
