IVG in Ireland: first parliamentary report, a year and a half after legalization

Text by: RFI Follow

In Ireland, the first parliamentary report on the termination of pregnancy was presented to Parliament on Tuesday 30 June. Abortion was legalized in the country in January 2019, following a massively favorable referendum. The report provides an overview of the first year of legal abortions.

Publicity

From our Dublin correspondent , Emeline Vin

Six thousand six hundred and sixty-six abortions were performed in Ireland in 2019. Only one hundred abortions involved pregnancies that were not viable or dangerous to the life of the mother. The majority of voluntary interruptions therefore took place within 12 weeks of pregnancy, an act punishable by 14 years in prison until 2018.

After the publication of the report, the anti-abortion group Pro-Life Campaign denounced the state's support for a law which "  claimed the lives of thousands of unborn babies  ". The association criticizes the increase in the number of abortions. Impossible, however, to know the figures prior to decriminalization , since by definition, women had abortions in hiding.

As for pro-choice activists, the director of Family Planning Niall Behan underlines that the rate of abortion is rather low, less than 10 per 1000 women, similar to that of Portugal for example. The data also reveal unequal access depending on the environment, rural or urban. The associations point out that in some counties in the west of the country, no doctor still practices abortion.

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Ireland
• Womens rights
• Health and Medicine