Irish women are now travelling to Russia to have abortions at a number of private clinics, it has emerged.
Senator Mary Henry, an independent senator and medical doctor, said yesterday she learned of the practice from a Russian government minister while attending a conference in Moscow last month.
She said she was "absolutely astonished" when a speaker at the conference, Mr Nikolai Gerasimenko, commenting on the abortion rate there, said he was concerned about the number of people travelling to Russia from abroad for abortions.
"He said they came from other countries, even from Ireland," she said.
Dr Henry said she later spoke with the Russian Deputy Minister for Health, Ms Olga Sharpova, about the revelation and asked her how many Irish women were travelling.
Ms Sharpova said she didn't know. "It was not a lot but not a handful either," was her reply.
Dr Henry said at first she thought the figure might have been accounted for by Irish women working in Russia but the Deputy Minister told her the figures related to Irish women who travelled to Russia on tourist visas.
Abortions cost $50 at private clinics there, she said.
Dr Henry said she raised the matter with the Irish Family Planning Association on her return but it was unaware of the practice.
The Department of Health also said yesterday it was unaware of claims this was happening.
"This came up quite by chance. I thought it was quite serious because we are obviously not looking at the whole picture at all in thinking everybody who wants an abortion travels to the UK," Senator Henry said.
A spokeswoman at the Russian embassy in Dublin said a lot of private clinics in Russia did not provide information to the Russian Ministry for Health and were not obliged to do so.
Therefore, it would be impossible to confirm if the figures represented the true picture.
An estimated 7,000 Irish women travelled to the UK for abortions last year, according to the most recent figures.