Four Westmeath women a month travelled to the UK in 2013 for abortions

Four Westmeath women a month travelled to Britain for abortions last year.

Newly released figures from the UK department of health have revealed that 45 women who gave Westmeath addresses obtained abortions in Britain last year.

In 2012, 47 women gave Westmeath addresses. Last year’s actual figure could have been higher as 855 women resident in Ireland declined to give any details about their county of origin. 

In total, 3,679 women who gave Irish addresses travelled to Britain last year for abortions, compared to 3,982 in 2012, a decrease of 7%. Women resident in Ireland accounted for 67% of all abortions performed on non-UK residents last year.

The county from which the greatest number of women travelled was Dublin (1,164), followed by Cork (262), Galway (133), Kildare (124) and Meath (119).

The number of women who gave Irish addresses to British abortions clinics has fallen steadily since 2001 when the figure peaked at 6,673. According to the British department of health statistics, between 1980 and 2013 at least 158,252 women living in Ireland travelled to the UK to obtain abortion services. Overall, the number of abortions carried out on non-UK residents was the lowest since 1969.

However, the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA), which provides pregnancy counselling and post-abortion services to some 1,500 women every year, believe that this figure could be much higher as not all women resident in Ireland provide their Irish address.

According to the IFPA CEO Niall Behan, the fact that such numbers of women travelled to the UK last year is a “modern indictment of the state’s treatment of women with unplanned or unwanted pregnancies”.

Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign said: “Every abortion is an immense human tragedy but the huge drop in numbers travelling to Britain for abortion over the last 12 years is a positive development."