Cork ranks second as Dept release abortion stats

MORE than 600 women – 606– gave Cork addresses when having abortions in 2019, according to statistics from the Department of Health, which were released last week.

The first annual report on the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Act 2018) shows that, in total, 6,666 terminations were carried out in the country in 2019. The majority of these were carried out in early-stage pregnancy.

This is the first time that such figures have been made available following the result of the May 2018 referendum on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. Voters in Cork East voted 64.1 per cent to 35.9 per cent to repeal the Eighth Amendment while Cork North-West voted 60.1 per cent to 39.9 per cent in favour of repeal. That vote paved the way for abortions to take place in Ireland. Terminations have been legally available in Ireland since January 1, 2019.

Of the 26 counties listed in the report last week, Cork ranks the second highest on the list.

Dublin accounted for 2,493 terminations going by the woman’s home address. Terminations were carried out in all 26 counties of the Republic, with Leitrim recording the lowest figures at 27. Fifteen cases gave no address, and these are listed as ‘other’ in the report, while 525 gave no county.

Until this report, no such figures were available, although UK reports did give an indication of how many women from Ireland had obtained abortions in the UK according to the addresses used. In 2019, these figures showed that 36 women gave Cork addresses when undertaking an abortion in the UK.