Northern Ireland abortion: Row over why Department of Health only reports small proportion of total abortions each year

A war of words has erupted about why the Department of Health has only reported 53 abortions from the past year out of the total 1684 which took place in Northern Ireland.

In a press statement on Thursday the Department of Health said there were 53 abortions in Health and Social Care hospitals in Northern Ireland during 2021/22 - 10 less than the previous year, but still an increase from 2019/20.

The annual press statement also said the number "only relates procedures carried out on hospital inpatients and day cases".

But TUV leader Jim Allister said the data "only shows the tip of the iceberg".

He added that while there were 63 abortions in HSC Hospitals in 2020/21, he was told in an Assembly Answer in November 2020 that 2,394 notifications of termination had been received by the Department since 2020.

"Every little life lost under the current abortion regulations is one too many but it is important that people know that the total figure since our laws changed is many thousands more than the figure released by the Department today suggests," he said.

The Department of Health was not able to give a clear reason as to why the total figure for annual abortions is not published in its annual press statement, other than to say that the figure it publishes only relates to inpatients or day cases "in line" with the definitions of previous publications.

The total number - including those which do not require hospital admission - is regularly disclosed through assembly answers, it added - for example 1684 abortions in 2021/22.

The matter will be reviewed in future years as part of the commissioning of abortion services, it added.

Academic and pro-choice campaigner Goretti Horgan said: "Of course, it is the case that the majority of abortions in NI do not take place in hospitals and are facilitated, not carried out, by health care professionals.

"This is because the overwhelming majority of abortions, approximately 2,000 a year, are medical abortions which are self-managed in their own home by the pregnant person when they take Misoprostol, the second lot of tablets that make up an Early Medical Abortion (EMA). "