{"id":248547,"date":"2021-07-03T13:11:13","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T18:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=248547"},"modified":"2021-08-02T14:52:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T19:52:03","slug":"ireland-abortion-numbers-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/ireland-abortion-numbers-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s abortion numbers remain high despite promise that it would be ‘rare’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Although a new report shows a slight decrease in the number of abortions committed in Ireland last year compared to 2019, pro-life groups were quick to note that these numbers are still high, and a far cry from the government\u2019s promise that abortions, once legalized, would be \u201crare.”\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Abortion became legal<\/a> in Ireland on January 1, 2019, with the introduction of the <\/span>Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018<\/span><\/a>. According to the second <\/span>Notifications Annual Report 2020<\/span><\/a>,\u00a06,577 abortions took place last year, a slight decrease from the 6,666 abortions performed in 2019.\u00a0<\/span>However, although the number of abortions declined, they represent a <\/span>70% increase<\/span><\/a> from 2018 \u2014 when abortion was still illegal in Ireland.<\/span><\/p>\n

Commenting on the report<\/span>, Eilis Mulroy of the Pro-life Campaign, a pro-life advocacy group in Ireland, called<\/a> the figures a \u201cdamning indictment of Government policy that overlooks positive alternatives to abortion,” adding,\u00a0<\/span>“[O]ne thing is clear \u2013 today\u2019s abortion figures are devastating and are the opposite of what members of the Government repeatedly promised when they said abortions would be \u2018rare\u2019 if people voted for repeal.”<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the report, <\/span>the vast majority of abortions<\/span><\/a> in 2020 were carried out before 12 weeks. Twenty of the 6,577 abortions were committed because of a perceived risk to the life or health of the mother, five were carried out due to an emergency situation, and 97 were committed because of a poor prenatal diagnosis labeled as fatal for the baby.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Live Action News has reported, abortion is <\/span>never medically necessary<\/span><\/a>. If a pregnancy needs to end because of a health risk or emergency, a preterm delivery is safer for women than abortion. Moreover, sometimes medical treatments to save a mother\u2019s life secondarily and unintentionally cause the death of the baby, but these treatments are not abortions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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