“The abortion statistics published today by the Department of Health are deeply troubling. They show that the number of abortions being carried out in Northern Ireland increased by a shocking 28.8% since the previous year, with 2,792 performed in 2023/24 compared with 2,168 in 2022/23. If one goes back further the rise is even more stark. In 2020/21 the figure was 1,574 meaning there has been an increase of over 77% when compared with today’s figures.
“While I welcome the increase in the volume of data published by the Department, I note that the information continues to fall well short of the information released by health authorities in Great Britain. In GB the socioeconomic background of the mother, whether she has had more than one abortion and other information is available but not in Northern Ireland. I received an assurance from the then Minister in 2024 that this situation would change. Why hasn’t it?”
TUV MLA Timothy Gaston added:
“I have been pressing Minister Nesbitt on issues related to abortion since becoming the Member for North Antrim and tellingly he has been less than forthcoming with responses. It is time that Northern Ireland had a properly informed debate about this issue. When the public were given an opportunity to have their say in response to an NIO consultation a massive 79% of the 21,200 responses to the consultation recorded their opposition to the abortion regulations. In spite of what some in the media may try to claim, there is still considerable opposition to abortion in Northern Ireland and there will be many who will share my alarm at the growth in the number of abortions in our Province.
“It is clear from today’s figures that abortion is increasingly becoming just another form of birth control in Northern Ireland and that the dishonest debate around the matter in the early 2020s, framed around “hard cases”, did not deal with the real issues created by the legislation imposed on Northern Ireland.”