The number of women having abortions in Ireland rose significantly last year to at least 10,852, the highest on record since the law changed. Full figures for hospitals-based abortions are not yet in.

Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Eilís Mulroy called the latest figures truly shocking and critiqued the Government for doing nothing to “try and reduce the spiralling numbers”.

She continued: “1 in 6 pregnancies now end in abortion. . . That’s a truly horrifying figure and it’s the opposite of what senior politicians promised the public would happen if they voted for repeal”.

She added that the 2024 figure represents a 280% increase from the 2,879 Irish abortions that happened in other jurisdictions in 2018, the last year before legislation make the procedure widely available in Ireland.

“Government figures tell us 55,000 abortions have occurred in Ireland since the law changed. The sadness and scale of the numbers is hard to comprehend”.

Meanwhile, Dr Shirley McQuade, medical director of the Well Woman Centre, told the Irish Independent she was surprised at the high number, given that free contraception is now available to women aged 17 to 35 years of age, which, she said, was meant to make it easier to control fertility.