The number of women travelling from Northern Ireland to mainland Britain for an abortion increased by 22% in a year, the latest statistics suggests.
Data released today (Thursday) found 1,053 abortions recorded among women with a Northern Irish address in England and Wales in 2018.
The increase follows a change in policy announced in June 2017, where the government agreed it would fund abortions for women who are ordinarily residents in Northern Ireland. Abortion remains illegal in almost all circumstances in Northern Ireland, including in cases of rape and incest.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which campaigns for better access to abortion, said the statistics only paint a “tiny part of the picture”, as some women in Northern Ireland will not be able to travel for an abortion due to circumstantial or health reasons.
The figures also do not reflect the “logistical nightmare” faced by women travelling for abortions, the charity said, as well as the fact some women experience bleeding while on the plane home.
Across England and Wales, the abortion rate increased marginally to 17.4 per 1,000 women in 2018, up from 16.7 in 2017.
In the last decade the percentage of abortions for women who are already mothers has also increased, with 56% of all terminations performed among those who have already had one or more previous births. This is an increase of 17% from 2008.
Commenting on the figures, BPAS said the reasons for an increase in abortions for women who are mothers “are complex”, but said the numbers of women travelling from Northern Ireland “illustrate how desperately women need to be able to access lawful services at home”.
“These statistics only give us a tiny part of the picture – they don’t tell us the stories of the women who have to get up in the middle of the night, the logistical nightmare of travel and making arrangements for the care of their existing children, needing to find excuses for work and family,” director of external affairs Clare Murphy said.
“They don’t tell the stories of women who sit on planes bleeding and nauseous. These numbers also cannot tell us about the women who simply cannot travel, and who risk prosecution and punishment by ordering pills online or who are forced to continue a pregnancy they do not want.”
Naomi Connor, 46, flew from Belfast to Manchester to access and abortion five years ago. She paid for her flights to England on a credit card, but says that some women don’t have this option and so have the added stress of seeking financial assistance from a charity.
Connor opted for a surgical abortion, rather than a pill-induced medical one, to save money. A medical abortion would have meant an overnight stay (two tablets must be taken, with a gap of one-two days between them), and she didn’t want the added cost of a hotel. “I didn’t want to stay somewhere overnight that I didn’t even want to have to travel to in the first place,” she recently told HuffPost UK.
Murphy pointed out that in recent weeks the there has been much condemnation of proposed rollbacks to abortion laws in the US, but the UK “must address the situation that exists within our own borders”.
“Abortion is a key part of women’s reproductive healthcare, essential if women are to be able to make their own decisions about their own bodies, lives and families, and it should be regulated in the same way as all other women’s healthcare procedures,” she said.