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In our Q&A: Eighth Amendment Referendum series, we are answering questions our readers have submitted in relation to the upcoming vote on 25 May.
THE QUESTION
NINE WOMEN AND girls leave Ireland every day to have a termination in the UK. A further three order abortion pills online.
More than 170,000 women and girls have travelled to another country for an abortion since 1980. The vast majority went to Britain, while a smaller number went to the Netherlands.
On 25 May, Irish people will have the opportunity to vote in a referendum asking whether or not the Eighth Amendment, Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution, should be repealed.
The amendment gives equal constitutional status to the mother and the unborn and effectively bans abortion from taking place legally in most scenarios in Ireland.
However, women are permitted to receive information about terminations from their doctors, and travel abroad to have one if they so choose.
In a referendum in November 1992, the majority of voters backed a constitutional amendment which allowed women and girls to travel “between the State and another state” to get access to a termination” (62.4% in favour).
Voters also backed the following amendment on the right to information: ”This subsection shall not limit freedom to obtain or make available, in the State, subject to such conditions as may be laid down by law, information relating to services lawfully available in another state.”
So, how many women and girls travel to the UK to have abortions?
Figures from the UK Department of Health show that 190,406 abortions were reported as taking place in England and Wales in 2016 – of which 185,596 involved residents of England and Wales. The vast majority of these abortions (92%) were performed under 13 weeks of pregnancy.
In 2016, 4,810 abortions were carried out on women who were not residents of England and Wales – compared with 5,190 in 2015. The number of abortions to non-residents has fallen each year since 2003, when the figure was 9,078. The 2016 number is the lowest in any year since 1969.
Some 3,265 females travelled from Ireland to the UK for abortions in 2016, the latest year for which we statistics are available. That means Irish females accounted for almost seven in 10 (67.9%) of the non-resident abortions carried out in Britain that year.
The figures also show that another 724 women and girls gave addresses from Northern Ireland (15%).
This compares to 3,451 who gave an address in the Republic, and 833 who gave an address in Northern Ireland, in 2015.
The vast majority of the females who gave addresses from the Republic lived in Dublin – 1,175.
During a Dáil debate in January, Health Minister Simon Harris listed how many women and girls left Irish counties to go to the UK for terminations.
He stated: “These are real women, such as the 36 from county Carlow who travelled to the UK for an abortion in 2016, or the 38 from Mayo, the 69 from Tipperary, the 85 from Wicklow, the 241 from Cork and the 1,175 women from Dublin.
“Women from every county in the Republic travelled to the UK in 2016 and we need to acknowledge them all, including the 49 from Kerry; 130 from Kildare; 21 from Leitrim; 20 from Roscommon; 69 from Wexford; 39 from Cavan; 15 from Monaghan; 99 from Limerick; 53 from Clare; 38 from Westmeath; 63 from Donegal; 113 from Galway; 44 from Kilkenny; 42 from Laois; 83 from Louth; 100 from Meath; 28 from Offaly; 29 from Sligo; 16 from Longford; and 56 from Waterford.”
Women in the age groups ranging from 20-39 accounted for most of the terminations (85%).
However, 10 girls under the age of 16 sought an abortion in the UK last year, as did 56 girls aged 16 or 17 and 174 women aged 18 or 19. A further 255 women aged 40 and over also had terminations.
Just over half of these women (51%) had a partner, while almost one in five (19%) were married or in a civil partnership.
Almost four in five of the women and girls (79%) had not had a previous abortion. Some 85% of the terminations took place within 12 weeks of gestation, with the majority of these (2,256) taking place within the first nine weeks.
Abortion pills
Commenting on figures when they were released last year, Helen Deely, head of the HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme, said: “It appears that the rate of women travelling abroad for an abortion declined relatively rapidly between 2001 and 2007 and in recent years the decline has been more gradual.”
She said recent research shows that “increasing numbers of women from the island of Ireland are making contact with online abortion pill providers”.
Figures published by one provider would suggest a 62% increase in the number of women from Ireland contacting that online service over a five-year period, from 548 in 2010 to 1438 in 2015.
“The authors report that the number of women who consult with the service is not indicative of the actual number of women who were sent the abortion pill and subsequently took it.
“This is because women change their minds, experience a spontaneous miscarriage, decide to travel abroad to obtain an abortion or decide to continue with their pregnancy.”
Deely added that research shows, while the vast majority of women did not need to contact medical services following taking the abortion pill at home, approximately one in 10 (9.3%) “reported to the online provider that they were experiencing a symptom for which they were advised to seek medical advice and 95% sought medical advice as advised”, Deely said.
Why women and girls have abortions
The Oireachtas Eighth Amendment Committee examined the UK’s abortion system during its hearings last year.
In November Dr Patricia Lohr, Medical Director of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, told the committee that BPAS has been “providing abortion care to women from Ireland since 1968“.
Indeed, BPAS’s website notes: “We’ve helped Irish women for a very long time, so we understand the difficulties you may face to get treatment.
BPAS has clinics in over 60 locations – many are close to ports and airports with direct budget travel from Ireland.
“Our special prices help you afford the best possible clinical care. More discount is available if you visit an Irish crisis pregnancy counselling agency before attending for BPAS treatment.”
The organisation is in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment.
Speaking about Irish women travelling to the UK for abortions, Lohr told the Oireachtas committee: “Last year 3,625 women were recorded in the annual abortion statistics produced by the Department of Health in England as having given an Irish address when they presented for treatment. Over the past 10 years, the number of women giving Irish addresses has fallen, from 4,600 in 2008.
This decline may be underpinned by a number of factors, including: better access to contraceptive services, and emergency contraception, increased access to abortion medication, as well as raised awareness that free treatment can be obtained with a UK address.
Lohr noted that a paper in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology published in July “reported that between January 2010 and December 2015, 5,650 women from Ireland and Northern Ireland contacted one online provider alone to request medical termination of pregnancy”.
Lohr told the committee there is “little difference between the reasons why women from Ireland present compared to those from the UK”. She said the reasons given by women and girls seeking abortions are “diverse and multifaceted”.
They involve “financial hardship, knowledge that her family is complete, inadequate partner or family support, domestic violence, or simply feeling they are not in the position to care for a baby at that point in their lives”, Lohr stated.
Of Irish women who receive abortion care in the UK, 70% are married or with a partner. Nearly half have already had at least one previous birth, meaning they are already mothers. All this is in keeping with information we have for women from the UK.
Lohr noted that, while some abortions “take place of pregnancies that were planned and indeed wanted, such as those for foetal anomaly, the majority of the women we see were trying to avoid pregnancy when they conceived”.
She said the majority of women from Ireland who had abortions in the UK were using a form of contraception when they conceived. An analysis of 2,703 women from Ireland who were treated at BPAS clinic over a four-year period found they were using the following forms of contraception:
Lohr told the committee that medical abortion accounts for the majority of early terminations carried out on residents in the UK, stating: “Many women prefer it as it is akin to a natural miscarriage, they can avoid an anaesthetic, and they can be at home when the pregnancy passes.”
However, the majority of early abortions provided for Irish women are performed surgically – 71%, compared to 28% for women resident in England and Wales.
Lohr said this is because, for financial and practical reasons, many women travelling from Ireland “often aim to fly in and out of the UK within a day, and as medical abortion involves leaving the clinic after taking the second set of medication and going home to pass the pregnancy, it is not clinically optimal for that to happen on the way to the airport or the flight home”.
“Effectively this means that women from Ireland are in all practical senses denied a choice of method in abortion,” Lohr said.
She also told the committee that three in 10 abortions (31%) carried out in the UK on women from the Republic of Ireland are performed at 10 weeks or later, compared to 20% for women who are resident in England and Wales.
Lohr said the earlier in a pregnancy a termination can be performed the better, both in terms of women’s “physical and mental wellbeing”.
“Reasons for later presentation will include the time it takes to organise travel and make logistical arrangements, particularly for those with work and childcare commitments,” she stated.
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Another poorly designed Accenture system, costing the tax payer millions, but of course they will more than likely get the contract again!!!
Was in the motor tax office yesterday, with about 100 people when the system crashed nation wide i was told, so no one could tax a car. The funny thing was the had a pri recorded message saying the system had crashed.I remember the old days when they hand wrote the discs but not any more.So back in monday
B’gob David you really have your finger on the pulse.
Spot on David, there are a number of indigenous software services companies that are more than capable of building this kind of system at a fraction of the cost. Building decent software is one of the things we are actually good. at in this country
Irish governments should not be allowed to implement computer systems. Bumbling idiots every time. They will spend millions on consultants reports, then ignore them and buy some bespoke piece of ‘state of the art’ shite from Denis O’Brien and his ilk, that will never be properly validated and never actually do what it is supposed to.
They could streamline the process immensely by simply allowing the Guards to formulate their own requirements for a replacement to PULSE and putting it out to tender. There’s no need to spend millions on consultation fees but the government sure loves their consultants.
The garda will tell them what they want not what they need and there’s more then the garda needs that must be considered in formulating requirements. Anyway were would the garda have the skills to formulate, document and validate a coherent set of requirements?
Any mistakes in the requirement stages would cost millions to fix later on in development/maintenance phases hence why experienced consultants are used. If you think building a system is expensive imagine the costs of trying to fix a broken one? 70 % of IT costs are in fixing/maintaining systems.
Any new system should work for the cops and help reduce costs and time in the office.
What is it that PULSE won’t do that we’d like it to do? Or is it just that the interface looks a bit dated?
There’s nothing wrong with old technology as such. We use 100 year old technology on our roofs and 9th century technology to lock our doors. There has to be a worthwhile and cost effective benefit to upgrade.
You’re right, there’s nothing wrong with old technology. Software, on the other hand, needs to be updated every so often. You can run a business off the old AS400′s from the 1980′s but it’s not going to compare to a modern software with modern interfaces and decades of feature development/enhancement.
Compare any software from the 1990′s designed to run off computer and server technology from the period to software designed to utilise modern computer and server technology and you’ll see a big difference in terms of performance and functionality.
There is as far as security is concerned, its not all about fast and pretty….but its only the Garda our national police force, why waste money there when funds are badly needed for cronies.
There absolutely is. Imagine trying to run a modern version of windows on a 1990s computer. The suggestions with examples of old technology are purposely misleading. In that a lock may have been invented in the 9th century but we use modern versions with modern technology, like take new car keys for example.
Lets use the same logic and give everybody windows 98, drive around in a mid 90s car, back to the old brick phones, CRT televisions on analogue signals.
What will the new one cost ? and which of the governments mates will benefit ?
Don’t think Ðenis O’Brien has a system that the government can use (yet) Pius .. Watch this space though ..
Can the Garda not employ administration officers that can do all the paper work that will free up gardai for real work such as crime prevention?
Every Garda has to do paperwork; reports on incidents under investigation, files to the DPP, disclosure to defence solicitors, information to insurance companies on traffic accidents etc. You would have to employ a lot of civilian to do all of that.
The dinosaurs running An Garda don’t want it replaced as it will mean they have to learn how to do something new
Exactly.
Leave it for the next crowd probably with the seinners in the mix they make sure it’s up graded so there ira friends will always know wats going on!
Don’t do it! Leave it as it is for f***s sake. Remember the €54m voting machines? This will make that look like petty cash.
PPARS
Not much point spending more money on a corrupt incompetent force. Most of them are only there because they didn’t have the intelligence for anything else. We need to look at the calibre of people we are taking into our police force. The days of either the guards or the priesthood are gone. Computer systems aren’t the problem it’s what’s using and abusing that system that’s the problem.
Harsh man very harsh. Did you have no coffee yet?
How’s the brain surgery going for you? Or is it theoretical physics?
Ignorant comment to say the least. I know plenty of Gardai who joined with various different college degrees and even masters.
Well if anyone can remember how the guards behaved when Pulse was first introduced, they would be afraid to implement a new system.
So do I,and they will spend the rest of their careers being beat Gardai with degrees.Unless you have a “sponsor” in middle rank and are an utter Yes man to them to get them up the ladder, and play politics you will be stuck pounding the beat until you retire. A prize example is Garda ballistics,the head of this has a diploma in ballistics and a degree in general science from UCG. In any other EU police force the head of a ballistics section has a DOCTORATE in the subject and is a civillian.But because AGS doesnt allow civillians to hold positions in the force,it is administerd by a Det inspector who is clueless on the subject.Promotion; Def ; is politics and pull over ability in AGS.
I know somebody who was working on this. Some guards were assigned to the teams. One of these guards on the first day picked up the pc mouse and started moving it about in the air above the keyboard in an attempt to move the pointer….
In fairness in the mid 90′s few members of the Irish public had much of an idea about computers.Your forgetting that it wasn’t so long ago that most people were two finger typists.Any one before about 2000 who could access the net was considered a bit of a nerd.Now we have ‘muck savage’ farmers from the wilds of the Kerry mountains buying livestock on line as second nature.
Does this not mean they are running old software on old nearly end of life operating systems which they will of course spend a fortune keeping it supported
What’s the point in have the inspectorate if anything they propose is immediately shot down! Has anything been they’ve proposed been implemented????
My concern, as always, is that instead of kicking up a fuss and saying we need a, b and c invested in as a priority, this needs to be changed or that needs to be changed, etc; we instead have a head of our police force who toes the government line, we are managing very well, sure we dont need to change that, sure whats wrong with the way things are type of responses and approach.
We have had an expert in. He gave his recommendations. But the people who have let this boys club attitude fester to their own benefit, and have left us with the joke of a police force we have(not members fault by the way), can say ‘ah no, we dont agree with that recommendation so we aren’t going to do it’. It’s an affront to our democracy and makes a mockery of our country to the detriment of our citizens.
And people reacted strongly on here when i criticised her appointment as she was a member of the ‘old boys club’. Starting to show true colours already. We need an politically independent police force who publically lobby government for what it needs to get the job done. Let the public decide whether a government is keeping its promises by publishing what was needed and what was provided and what the effects on the ground were.
What happens when Pulse crashes?…back to the black notebook so.
Your getting alot of red thumbs but tbh I’m supprised the Pulse system hasn’t been attacked years ago.When it went in I was sure it was only a matter of time before it was cracked open and brought down.I know of more than a few people who could take it on.
So when was it ‘cracked open and brought down’?
Do you read posts before commenting? I was pointing out that I was wrong in assuming that it was a pos and would be brought down.Obviously it is more robust than many including myself thought.It might need a bit of a spit polish but beyond that it looks as secure as some banking systems that have been in for 30/40 odd years.I know of many who could tackle such a system but as far as we know its still intact.Im surprised they actually got it so secure day one.
I believe it is an isolated system segment inside the greater Gardai infrastructure. Afaik there is no external access via the outside (although im not sure about vpn access)
Police Using Leading Systems Effectively
Guards probably couldn’t handle new technology, they must be the only police force in the world that don’t have email addresses, pathetic.
Thay do have Email
*They
I was told by a guard after a incident recently when I asked for his email address “we don’t do email”.
They do actually!! Get your facts straight instead of belittling the people who will be your first port of call when you need help!
Sorry Officer.
They do have email. It can’t handle attachments very well though.
Not sure if the n-yardi have email but seems like plenty have the journal app.
Careful you. You’ll find yourself thrown into a van, taken to the station and “released without charge”.
And you better be grateful.
I’ll have to work on my h-attitude
The Gendarme (spelling?) and lots of other government departments/entities in various countries have migrated to Ubuntu or other Debian linux systems. Ireland should be doing the same and just employ a few developers to continuously develop any system that they intend implementing.
They should move to the cloud…..
Surely It’s not really what software runs the database but what information is stored on the database that matters?
Rubbish in rubbish out I say . It needs a new up to date windows driven system of latest release on win 8 . Guards themselves should be asked what output is now needed , what legacy data to bring over , do a data clean up , then upload and sign off . Put a five year maintenance support contract with the sale and at least 1 upgrade to 8.1. Penalty points should only be cancelled by ministers office . No guards to be involved at all in the process. Automatic post to anyone with 12 points and notice to nearby Garda station to go out and confiscate the licence with feedback in the system saying it’s done within 2 weeks . Minister give me a call if you want me to set this up for you .
I agree with you Donal, but when have Ministers done the right thing …
You lost me at windows.
Penalty points to be only cancelled by the minister’s office?? Do you expect that to be any less susceptible to bogey cancellation ??
have your say