Abortion Rate In Northern IrelandAbortion has been carried out in Northern Ireland for many years in allegedly restricted

circumstances in crisis situations. For years no statistics were published. Following a Parliamentary Question in the House of Commons, statistics became available for 1996/1997 and subsequent years. The figures relate to “abortions in health service hospitals and the information is taken directly from the Hospital Inpatients System.” According to the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), the figures exclude two private hospitals/clinics, in Derry and Belfast. These, however, do not appear to be a matter of concern. The years given are not coincident with the calendar years, stretching from 1st April to 31st March the following year. The Data given by DHSS Belfast was as follows :

Type of Abortion/

Year

96/97 98/99 99/00 00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11

Missed Abortion

Spontaneous Abortion

3. Medical Abortion

4. Other/Unspecified

Total

NA NA 942 1057 1033 942 1059 1131 1182 1173 1096 1211 1321 1251

1716 1515 1348 1383 1443 1271 1270 1106 1077 1139 1247 1095 1019 892

85 79 71 83 71 76 67 64 80 79 91 78 67 75

85* 8 8 8 3 2 1 2 0 0 0 5 0 0

1886 1602 2369 2531 2550 2291 2397 2303 2339 2391 2434 2389 2407 2218

Note : * badly coded .

Source: DHSS Information and Analysis Unit. Figures relate to abortions in health service hospitals. Missed abortions were reported for the first time in 2004 retrospective to 1999/2000. Items 1 and 2, if correctly reported, are obviously not direct deliberate abortions. Items 3 or 4 undoubtedly could be but some could undoubtedly also cover indirect and undesired effects of treatments carried out under the Double Effect Principle.

Comment : As one would expect from the robust opposition to abortion in Northern Ireland, the number of overall abortions performed are quite low. Assuming that all spontaneous and missed abortions are correctly recorded and taking “Medical Abortions” and “Other/Unspecified” only as possible direct abortions and adding the abortions performed in England and Wales on residents of Northern Ireland we can compared NI abortions with the Republic's.

Comparison of Abortion Rates on women from the Republic and Northern Ireland 1996-2010

Northern Ireland Republic

Abortions 1996

Abortions 1997

Abortions 1998

Abortions 1999

Abortions 2000

Abortions 2001

Abortions 2002

Abortions 2003

Abortions 2004

Abortions 2005

Abortions 2006

Abortions 2007

Abortions 2008

Abortions 2009

Abortions 2010

1573 + 170 = 1743 (7.1% Live Births) 4894 (9.7% Live Births)

1572 + 89 = 1661 (6.8% Live Births) 5235 (10.25% Live Births)

1581 + 87 = 1668 (6.8% Live Births) 5892 (11 % Live Births)

1430 + 79 = 1509 (6.5% Live Births) 6226 (11.6% Live Births)

1528 +91 = 1619 (7.5% Live Births) 6391 (11.8% Live Births)

1577 + 74 = 1651 (8.1% Live Births) 6673 (11.5% Live Births)

1391 + 78 = 1469 (6.9% Live Births) 6522 (10.8% Live Births)

1318 + 68 = 1386 (6.4% Live Births) 6320 (10.3% Live Births)

1280 + 66 = 1346 (6% Live Births) 6217 (10.1% Live Births)

1164 + 80 = 1244 (5.4% Live Births) 5585 (9.2% Live Births)

1295 + 79 = 1374 (6.2% Live Births) 5042 (7.9% Live Births)

1343 + 91 = 1434 (5.9% Live Births) 4686 (6.4% Live Births)

1173 + 83 = 1256 (4.9% Live Births) 4600 (6.1% Live Births)

1123 + 67 = 1190 (4.78% Live Births) 4422 (5.9% Live Births)

1101 + 75 = 1176 (4.6% Live Births) 4402 (5.9% Live Births)