THE NUMBER of girls under 16 and women over 35 travelling abroad for abortions increased last year compared to 2008, but the overall number of abortions decreased, according to the Crisis Pregnancy Agency.
In 2001, when the agency was founded, 6,673 women gave Irish addresses for abortions abroad, a figure that decreased to 4,422 last year, according to its final annual report.
Minister for Health Mary Harney, who launched the agency’s final report following its amalgamation in January into the Health Service Executive (HSE), warned of the necessity to ensure counselling services are available to all ages.
“Very often it’s assumed that a crisis pregnancy is a pregnancy involving a teenager or somebody very young,” but somebody of the age of 35-plus for whom even a planned pregnancy could become a crisis was a new development and “one we need to be extremely concerned about”, she said.
Figures for under-16s showed that last year, 38 girls gave Irish addresses, compared to 27 in 2008 and 47 in 2007. The number of women over 35 seeking abortions in Britain and the Netherlands rose from 720 in 2008 to 781 last year. The abortion rate for over-35s had increased slightly from 2.2 per 1,000 in 2008 to 2.3 last year.
Women under 20 seeking abortions dropped from 944 in 2001 to 511 in 2008 to 484 last year.
The Minister did not anticipate another abortion referendum for the “foreseeable future”, after a “very realistic” referendum proposal was defeated by a combination of the very liberal and very conservative.
When asked about Ireland continuing to “export” the problem of abortion, she said “we don’t provide for abortion here. That’s a decision the people of Ireland have made. We have to respect that decision, and that will remain for the foreseeable future.”
As concerns were raised about the agency within the HSE, Ms Harney also said it should continue to produce an annual report and retain its influence.
She supported the merger with the HSE’s child and family services section, and said “so far they’ve had a fantastic experience within the HSE”. The emphasis remained on the agency’s programme. “I want to see that continue, and I don’t want to see any diminution of the responsibility of the agency to reduce the number of crisis pregnancies in Ireland and to assist those who are experiencing a crisis pregnancy.”
Agency chairwoman Katharine Bulbulia highlighted changes the agency brought about, including the first Irish TV adverts in 2004 to promote contraception, increased awareness and openness about unplanned pregnancies.
Ms Bulbulia had expressed concern the agency “would disappear into the HSE and lose visibility”, but she was “really heartened” by the Minister’s comments. “She did not want it to lose visibility – she actually instanced how it might retain it by producing its own annual report.”
Caroline Spillane, director of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency – now called the HSE Crisis Pregnancy Programme – highlighted the increased level of free counselling available at more than 50 centres across the State.
She said there was an increase in the number of women over 35 with “complex issues which can relate to financial concerns, relationship breakdown, employment concerns. But one of the things that’s always there is that women over 35 mistakenly believe that they are not fertile.”
Ms Spillane said 28 per cent of women who have been pregnant have experienced a crisis pregnancy.
