What the latest abortion figures reveal – and what the Govt left out

Last week, the Department of Health posted quietly on its website the latest abortion figures, showing that 10,600 abortions took place in Ireland in 2025. The new data also shows that over 65,000 abortions occurred in Ireland since the new law took effect.

As well as the under-the-radar way they were released, the latest Department of Health figures should be accompanied by a health warning, given the discrepancies found in previous annual releases.

Back in 2021, for example, the Department of Health admitted that the official figures it had presented to the public stated a “substantially lower” number of abortions than what was actually carried out. Based on reimbursements made to GPs in 2021, approximately 6,700 abortions were performed by GPs alone, yet the Department of Health released figures suggesting that 4,577 abortions had taken place that year. Though the Department gave an undertaking to rectify the matter, almost five years later, it still has not done so.

Figures

If the GP claims are correct, the Government under-reported the number of abortions carried out that year by approximately 2,000. The only other explanation is that abortion-providing GPs fraudulently claimed close to €1 million from taxpayers for procedures they did not perform. The Government still owes the public a full and detailed explanation.

The week prior to the latest numbers being released, the HSE released a report on the provision of abortion in Ireland”

The figures released last week are marginally lower than those for the previous year. The more important point, however, is that numbers from both 2024 and 2025 reveal the truly staggering increase in abortions since the introduction of the new law. In the final year before the legislation took effect, there were 2,879 abortions. The latest figures show just how dramatically that number has risen since then.

The week prior to the latest numbers being released, the HSE released a report on the provision of abortion in Ireland (2019-2025). It, too, was a highly selective and heavily curated report, lacking so much important information that the public is entitled to know in order to form a clear picture of what is happening under Ireland’s new abortion regime.

Accuracy

While the HSE report documents the massive increase in abortions since the law changed in 2019, it fails to mention hugely important things like the number of babies who have survived the abortion procedure under the new law and whether these babies received any medical assistance or were left to die. Figures released in response to parliamentary questions some months back revealed that 108 babies survived abortions over a four-year period. Those figures should have been included in the HSE report, but anything that could in any way cast abortion in a negative light appears to get left out. That is politics at work, not a commitment to accurate reporting or basic accountability.

Missing too from Government and HSE reports is any breakdown or analysis concerning abortions performed on the grounds of risk to the pregnant mother’s “life or health”.

State-funded unplanned pregnancy agencies, in effect, operate as a fast-track system for abortion”

Roughly one in 300 abortions were carried out on these grounds – a figure that contrasts sharply with the impression conveyed ahead of the 2018 abortion referendum that legal change was required to protect women’s lives.

It should be noted of course, that the law which has opened the door to abortion on demand was not needed to protect women’s lives. That argument was used to justify the introduction of the regime that is now in operation. Prior to Repeal, women received whatever medical treatments they required during pregnancy, even where it resulted in the unintended loss of the unborn baby. What was not permitted was the direct and intentional ending of the unborn baby’s life. That is now taking place on a scale most did not imagine eight years ago – a tragic situation with no official attention or effort to reduce the numbers.

State-funded unplanned pregnancy agencies, in effect, operate as a fast-track system for abortion and nothing more. Even a cursory examination of their websites suggests structures overwhelmingly geared towards abortion provision.

Response

Eight years on from the introduction of abortion, there is still no State-backed service whose sole purpose is to ensure that women who are conflicted about having an abortion can access timely information and practical support if they wish to continue their pregnancy. That alone is a national scandal.

The response from senior Government figures to this criticism has not been to address the imbalance but to sweep it under the carpet. Allowing only one side of a deeply contested issue to shape policy on unplanned pregnancy is unhealthy, unbalanced and fundamentally undemocratic.

Trying to maintain the fiction that this is a politically neutral space operated by neutral and independent personnel is an insult to people’s intelligence. The Government’s job is not to pander to entrenched cliques and provide them with political cover.

We remain resolutely committed to breaking the pro-abortion movement’s stranglehold”

All the evidence points to a system that is shaped entirely by one viewpoint, while the experiences of women who regret their abortions or wished they had been offered meaningful alternatives remain completely excluded from all policy discussions. This cannot continue.

Across the Dáil, more and more TDs recognise we’re the people who’ve been telling the truth all along. Sadly, the ones refusing to give an inch are those at the very top. The one encouraging sign is that, with each passing day, their grip on power is slipping.

As a movement, we remain resolutely committed to breaking the pro-abortion movement’s stranglehold on decision-making in this area, forcing a shift in government policy away from promoting abortion and towards prioritising alternatives.