Two Kerry women a week seek UK abortions

AN average of two Kerry women per week travel to the UK for an abortion, The Kerryman can reveal.

At least 316 women from the county had abortions from 2008 to 2010, representing 2.5 per cent of 13,424 Irish abortions in the UK in those three years. However, this number could be much higher, as many Irish women do not state their address at abortion clinics.

The Kerryman spoke to one such woman this week, who travelled to Liverpool in March 2010 for an abortion.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous because her family do not know about her abortion, talked about her experience and the difficulties she faced after deciding to terminate her pregnancy.

In 2008, 86 women from Kerry had an abortion.

In 2009 this figures rose significantly to 130 - a startling increase of over 50 per cent on the previous year. This number then dropped to 100 terminations in 2010.

These figures were released by the UK Department of Health.

Volunteer counsellor with the Kerry branch of CURA, Noelle Moylan, told The Kerryman that many women come to their services seeking advice on abortion.

“Most woman who come to us are faced with the option of abortion, but not all women choose to go down that road. They consider abortion because they feel that they cannot cope. We work out what is best for them and take the panic out of crisis pregnancy,” she said.

According to prices quoted by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas), the cost of an abortion can range from £525 to £1,660 for a surgical termination during the 1924 week mark.

The birth rate in Kerry during the same period also fluctuated, from 2,056 in 2008, to 2,149 in 2009, and 1,907 in 2010.