Number of Irish women seeking abortion in Britain declines for the tenth consecutive year. 

British health authorities have released their statistics for abortions over the last year and for the tenth consecutive year the number of women with Irish addresses has declined. The figures are back to where they were about 30 years ago.  Some people, like the IFPA, will like to claim credit for this, people are using contraception they say (yet our birth rate is at a 118 year high) so obviously something is off in their reasoning. But I suppose when your raison d'être is abortion and contraception you have to come out with some spin. They will also tell you that fewer and fewer Irish women give Irish addresses because of a variety of reasons. Again no evidence to support this, and indeed it calls into question the method the British use to compile their statistics. Highly original. 
Anyway this is good news. 
One of the main arguments for introducing abortion into Ireland is that Irish women will only go to Britain anyway. Not much of an argument but now that fewer Irish women feel the need to go to Britain does this mean we will hear less of that argument? One final note. Just because fewer women feel the need to have an abortion does not mean that we do not try to help them, change our culture and society to one that values mothers and their babies. 

 PLC welcomes fall in abortion rates for tenth consecutive year.   While abortion rates fall, rate of women regretting abortions rise

29th May 2012

The Pro Life Campaign has welcomed the latest Irish abortion figures released today by the British Department of Health,* which show that the number of Irish women travelling to Britain for abortions has decreased for the tenth consecutive year.

In 2011, 4,149 Irish women travelled to Britain for abortions, down from 4,402 in 2010 and 4,422 in 2009.  The 2011 figures show a marked decrease over previous years.  2011 is the tenth consecutive year that Irish abortions have declined and represents a 38% decline since the high of 6,673 Irish abortions in 2001.

The release of these figures follows the recent report ** from the HSE/Crisis Pregnancy Programme showing an increase in the number of women expressing abortion regret.  In that study, 44 per cent of women expressed varying degrees of regret about their abortions up from 33 per cent in a similar HSE study in 2003.

In a statement welcoming the continuing reduction in the number of Irish women travelling to Britain for abortion, Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign said:

“While it is too early to draw firm conclusions, the fact that the abortion figures are decreasing while the number of women expressing regret after abortion is increasing, shows the need for a much closer examination of women’s experiences of abortion, including abortion regret."

She said: “There has been a refusal on the part of those campaigning for abortion in Ireland to take on board the research indicating the negative consequences of abortion for women. This does a tremendous disservice to women. The claims by some groups that the reduced figures can be explained by the fact that women are travelling to other countries is not backed by the evidence."

 *Summary Abortion Statistics, England and Wales: 2011 (29/05/12)
 ** Irish Contraception and Crisis Pregnancy Study 2010 (ICCP 2010), published in May 2012 (HSE/CPP