Abortion Rate In Northern Ireland Abortion 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
NA
NA
942
1057
1033
942
1059
1131
1182
1173
1096
1211
1321
1251
Spontaneous Abortion
1716
1515
1348
1383
1443
1271
1270
1106
1077
1139
1247
1095
1019
892
3. Medical Abortion
85
79
71
83
71
76
67
64
80
79
91
78
67
75
4. Other/ Unspecified
85*
8
8
8
3
2
1
2
0
0
0
5
0
0
Total
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
1573 + 170 = 1743 (7.1% Live Births)
4894 (9.7% Live Births)
Abortions 1997
1572 + 89 = 1661 (6.8% Live Births)
5235 (10.25% Live Births)
Abortions 1998
1581 + 87 = 1668 (6.8% Live Births)
5892 (11 % Live Births)
Abortions 1999
1430 + 79 = 1509 (6.5% Live Births)
6226 (11.6% Live Births)
Abortions 2000
1528 +91 = 1619 (7.5% Live Births)
6391 (11.8% Live Births)
Abortions 2001
1577 + 74 = 1651 (8.1% Live Births)
6673 (11.5% Live Births)
Abortions 2002
1391 + 78 = 1469 (6.9% Live Births)
6522 (10.8% Live Births)
Abortions 2003
1318 + 68 = 1386 (6.4% Live Births)
6320 (10.3% Live Births)
Abortions 2004
1280 + 66 = 1346 (6% Live Births)
6217 (10.1% Live Births)
Abortions 2005
1164 + 80 = 1244 (5.4% Live Births)
5585 (9.2% Live Births)
Abortions 2006
1295 + 79 = 1374 (6.2% Live Births)
5042 (7.9% Live Births)
Abortions 2007
1343 + 91 = 1434 (5.9% Live Births)
4686 (6.4% Live Births)
Abortions 2008
1173 + 83 = 1256 (4.9% Live Births)
4600 (6.1% Live Births)
Abortions 2009
1123 + 67 = 1190 (4.78% Live Births)
4422 (5.9% Live Births)
Abortions 2010
1101 + 75 = 1176 (4.6% Live Births)
4402 (5.9% Live Births)