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LAST YEAR OVER 3,500 women from Ireland travelled to the UK for abortions.
The UK Department of Health published figures today on abortion Statistics for England and Wales in 2013.
It found that 3,679 women who gave Irish addresses had an abortion in the UK last year. Those figures are down from 3,982 in 2012, a decrease of 7.6 per cent.
The total number of abortions carried out in England and Wales during 2013 was 190,800, that is 0.1 per cent more than in 2012.
Last year, there were 5,469 abortions carried out on women living outside England and Wales, compared with 5,850 in 2012.
Sixty-seven per cent of them came from the Republic of Ireland, while 15 per cent were from Northern Ireland.
Since 1980, at least 158,252 women have travelled to the UK to access abortion services.
Reaction
The figures published today do not give reasons for the drop in figures. Campaign groups from both sides of the abortion debate have commented on the findings.
The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) described the numbers as a “modern indictment of the State’s treatment of women with unplanned or unwanted pregnancies”.
IFPA CEO Niall Behan said:
Every day our clients tell us about their experiences of being abandoned by the Irish health care system and forced to rely on the services of another country.
“These women are not criminals but the law treats them as such because they are seeking a service that is illegal in almost every circumstance in Ireland.”
Meanwhile, The Life Institute has welcome the decrease in the number of Irish women having abortions over the last year.
Spokeswoman Niamh Uí Bhriain said, “This is good news: the decrease is significant and, while every abortion is a tragedy, it was important that women continue to realise that there were always better options than abortion.
The number of Irish women travelling for abortions has been falling steadily since 2001, as supports for mothers in crisis have improved and awareness of the humanity of the unborn children has improved.
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Jesus, that roast dinner looks crap
Roaming dogs with a plan
Frozen veg, waxy spuds and a cheap cut of chicken. The dog would struggle to eat that.
Just like mam makes it.. :)
More like two conjoined heads than chicken.
Must be the new McDonald’s roast dinner, rotten like the rest of their so called ‘food’
Exactly Jamie.
Boil the shite out of the veg, burn half the chicken while the inside is still raw. Poisson the potatoes with salt and hide a hair somewhere to be discovered half way though eating. Sunday roast dinner Mammy style.
Where’s the gravy and the roasters?
As long as it’s not a curley hair you’ll be ok!
@Alan Kennedy: Je ne voudrais pas le poisson et le poulet sur la même plaque!
It’s a mystery how anybody could miss anything about the food in Ireland.
Rotten looking roast dinner Bear Grylls wouldn’t eat it.
One thing I don’t miss is a “fat boy junk frier”
Pauliebhoy…
I am currently working in a remote part of the Philippines.
If I could get food like that here I would pay anything.
Even a dinner like in the pic.
Tummy is grumbling now.
I miss Cadbury’s chocolate, Fry’s Turkish, Tayto crisps and the Irish sausage and bacon.
Good Irish RASHERS.. Not the thin miserable crispy streaks that pass for bacon over here
I thought they were Danish now Diaspora’d?
You must live in oz
No, Monterey, CA
Nice spot Derek? Hoping to get over to California in late autumn And not sure where best to go!
Check out Irish Grub in Sunnyvale CA .. Best Irish rashers west of Dingle !!
Go to food ireland.com. Everything you want from home and the rashers ain’t too shabby
A pint pulled correctly in a proper local pub. Not a bright lights Paddy O’Shamrocks in NYC’s Times Square!
Worst looking roast I’ve ever seen, not even some gravy to perk it up a bit!
The sign posts, despite the fact they are usually pointed in the wrong direction, love them. Only in Ireland
Only in Ireland? Cos of the two languages or pointed in the wrong direction?
Love the Chinese food in ireland it’s pure crap in the states
Cat meat???
I ngach áit*
Many still miss Sally O’Brian and how she might look at you, probably cross eyed lol.
Sorry but is this an ad by McDonald’s trying to be whimsical about being Irish??? F.O.
Too many things… The family, the fun, the craic in the bars which you get nowhere else in the world, the friendliness of randomers, the slang/vernacular, the green, the air….
Not enough to bring me back just yet.. but soon
I miss the humour and the music the most!
The Sarcasm is great …. We thrive on Sarcasm…..
Yeah right, that and your hilarious sense of humour with you thinking you’re another Dara O’Brien just because your Irish, fat and bald.
The 7 red thumbs that’s Ive so far got don’t get the irony of my sarcasm.
I missed the dark humour, only when you’re surrounded by Americans and see the disgust in their eyes do you truly miss the Irish outlook
7. Burgerking
Only kidding…. 7. Supermacs
Nothing beats the old Burger Land Club Burger. You can fly all year and you won’t bring that back
Whoever wrote this article has never ‘been away’ in their lives.
Load of garbage.
Things I don’t miss: 1.Corrupt gov 2.high taxes 3.low wages/job security 4.un paved roads 5.lack of health care 6.lack of houses
I also don’t miss articles like this
Twisty windy roads, the local unusual and odd characters, walking in to the main nightclub or late bar knowing every Tom dick & Harry, taco fries from supermacs at 3 in the morning, the angelus and death notices on the local radio station, neighbours sheep or cattle in your lawn, brown coloured tap water, the rain, the bog on a sunny day… Just a few things I missed when I was away
You missed the death notices? No wonder you were ran
Aye, like Tommy Joe past away and my grandfather used to buy hay off him in the 70′s so I was told so I should have made the funeral but I was away.
People cutting the back off ya…naturally not to your face…must be away way too long.oh and meanies defenitely meanies.
Dairy Milk (yes they’re not perfect but miles better than Oz ones!) Good quality meat and dairy yum
Shame on you Micky D’s that poor chap on the ice is not funny in the least. Watching someone else get hurt is not really something to be slapping your thighs to.
Worst name of all time “mammysdinners” that is just pathetic
Using the US as an example milk and bread are mine. But the holy grail of what’s missed is chipper food.
Can’t beat Wexford rissoles and chips
Scangers
They really need a 6 things you don’t miss.
99s
When I lived in Belgium, you could not get decent bacon. Bacon, cabbage and floury spuds with a good lash of real butter.
your man smacked his head off te grond. you sick fcukcs
Ha you just got reported
“What do you miss when you’re away? Let us know down below…”
I am afraid that is between me and my doctor lol.
What I miss the most is the GAA, ya can’t beat a Sunday with the GAA & a roast dinner
Even the sound of GAA on the TV is unique. If I hear it coming from some bar when abroad it’s like a magnet.Im not even that much of a GAA fan but it just sounds like summer at home.
Where is the bacon and cabbage ?
Looking at all this crap food it’s no wonder we have the highest rate of heart attacks in Europe.As for all the other sentimental rubbish it reaffirms for me why I left in the first place.
Meanies.
Chicken fillet rolls
Lol my comments slagging the article were removed!
The journal is going irishcentral.com ?
I don’t drink tea! Daft article
No mention of Mammy ??
Sausages!!!
Our youngest in Oz misses Tayto and Bovril and After-8s
Batch loaf, bacon fries and of course a good fry
#1 – Schadenfreude. The Germans got there first. …..
Kellys Blackpudding
Roast beef, roast spuds,veggies, and of course Bisto gravy.That’s a proper Sunday dinner. Even better after a few pints.
Over priced 10 spots and our 42% taxation Oh yea and sarcasm!
Wexford Strawberries, Wicklow Lamb,the Dublin/Wicklow mountains and of course the fresh air
The weather
Terrible list. I don’t miss much really. Just my mum, proper Irish pubs, and a decent newspaper. Oh and Tayto beef and onion, we can get the cheese and onion here. To be honest I miss the rest of Europe more, I’d love to be able to nip to Italy for a week without taking out a mortgage.
Taco chip! Fake tan…
Irish sausages can’t beat them and white pudding
Tayto and ice cold bottle of lucozade on a Sunday morning!
Don’t drink tea. Hate McDonalds .. When you go away . experience that country’s culture scenery . everything about it . or else STAY at Home ..
2 eggs, 2 rasher, 2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 puddins one black one white. All placed like a tower on top of one another and wrapped up good and tight. If yer havin some tae the milks over there, you’ll find sugar in the bowl. Says she do you want some sauce on that, says I, I do in my………roll!
People who know its Paddy’s day not Patty’s day!!!!!
That has too be the worst list ever compiled by the journal.and there has been a couple before this
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He/ she right about the roast dinner pure shit that poor chicken roast dinner is beef for Christ sake
That was the worst looking roast dinner ever. Apparently that mammy doesn’t cook her chicken. A time saver I’m sure.
First thing I eat is a packet of Tayto
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