Family doctors in Kildare have expressed disappointment at the number of abortions performed on Irishwomen in the UK, in the light of the availability of family planning services.
Most of those concerned, it said, were adult women.
In a statement, the Kildare Faculty of the Irish College of General Practitioners says that, according to a recent survey, "It is clear that high quality family planning services are readily available throughout the county."
This included all types of family planning, with the exception of tubal ligation, and including the morning after pill, it said.
"It continues to be a source of disappointment and bewilderment to members of the Faculty that individuals who are sexually active are failing to access these services and find themselves in a situation where they require to have an abortion carried out in the UK," it said.
Pointing out that 71 per cent of the Irish women who had abortions in the UK were aged between 20 and 34, it said: "We are not dealing here with a situation involving predominantly young adolescent women but rather a situation involving adult women.
"We are unable to understand why it is that these individuals and their partners are not availing of family planning services from general practitioners working in their immediate communities."