Over 3,000 Irish women travelled to the UK for an abortion in 2016
Health Minster Simon Harris opened this evening's “historic” debate on the Eight Amendment by revealing figures showing the amount of women who have travelled for abortions since 1980.
“This is happening in Ireland today. That's a fact. How can we ignore it? How can we consider it alright?” he asked the Dáil.
During his opening statement, the Fine Gael TD said it was important to recognise the “sad reality that we have been exporting this issue,” before bringing attention to new figures which showed that 3,265 women travelled to the UK from Ireland for an abortion in 2016.
Strong speech by Simon Harris in #dail on #8Committee report, he listed county-by-county the 3,265 women who travelled to England for a termination in 2016 and said it was “a sad reality we’ve been exporting this issue for decades”.
— Hugh O'Connell (@oconnellhugh) January 17, 2018
A county-by-county breakdown revealed that 1,175 of the women travelled from Dublin, with others mainly coming from Cork (241), Kildare (130) and Galway (113).
“These are not faceless women. They are our friends and neighbours, sisters, cousins, mothers, aunts, wives,” the Health Minister said.
“Each woman is dealing with her own personal situation and making what is a deeply difficult decision.”
The figures also showed that over 1,500 women were aged between 20 and 29, while 255 were over 40.
10 girls under the age of 16 were shown to have travelled for an abortion in 2016.
Meanwhile, over 50 per cent of the women said they were either married or in a relationship.
“I can’t help but wonder what we would have done if we didn’t have a neighbouring island to help us turn a blind eye. And sometimes turning a blind eye is the same as turning your back.”
The Government have agreed to draft a Bill that would allow a referendum on the Eighth Amendment to take place, though the wording of the bill has not yet been finalised.
Discussions are expected to continue into tomorrow.
