Ruadhán Jones
The Department of Health’s annual report on abortion statistics shows that of the 6,577 abortions carried out in 2020, just 122 were carried out in situations where the life of the child or mother was in danger.
A further 194 women travelled to the UK to for an abortion in 2020, which brings the figure to 6,771 abortions.
More abortions took place in 2020 as a proportion of live births than in 2019 – 12.3% of pregnancies ended in abortion in 2020, compared with 10.96% in 2019.
In 2020, 20 procedures were carried out due to a risk to life or health; five due to a risk to life or health in an emergency situation; 97 due to a “fatal foetal anomaly”; and 6455 in early pregnancy, meaning before 12 weeks pregnancy have elapsed.
According to a release from the Department of Health, the HSE has also submitted a report on reviews carried out in 2019 – this report has also been laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas.
Of two applications for review made to the Executive in 2020, one was found to have met the requirements for a lawful “termination of pregnancy”. The release gives no information on the other review.
The June 29 report, which covers the period from January 1 2020 until 31 December 2020, is the second since the introduction of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018.
The figures are similar to 2019, when 6,666 pregnancies were aborted.
In 2020, Dublin was the most frequently listed “county of residence” by those who aborted their pregnancy, with 2,414 notifications received. Cork (645) and Limerick (278) were the second and third highest.
Meanwhile, Leitrim was cited the least (28), while Northern Ireland (36) and locations outside of Ireland (8) made up 44 of the locations cited.
For the second year in a row, the highest number of terminations carried out were in January (707 notifications), along with March (655) and April (638). The month with fewest notifications was December (319).