It is estimated that 10,000 extra abortions have taken place since the procedure was legalised over a year ago.

That’s according to the leader of Aontú, Peader Tóibín, extrapolating from figures provided by the Southern Taskgroup on Abortion and Reproductive Topics (START).

Speaking on the 2nd anniversary of the deletion of the Right to Life from the Constitution, Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín TD said in every country where abortion is legalised, the rates of abortion increase radically and the evidence so far indicates that this has happened in Ireland too. “If the abortion providers’ representative group are correct, then 10,450 extra lives have been lost in the 14 months that have passed since the abortion service was created. This is a significant loss of life, multiples of what’s been lost to Covid”.

He said the vast majority of women opt for abortions for “socio-economic reasons”, with many feeling they have “no choice” because of the economic situation they are in.

Nonetheless, “We have seen absolutely no evidence in the 2 years since the referendum that the government have focused on supporting mothers financially to ensure that they actually have a choice when it comes to the birth of their children”.

The Aontú leader also revealed that during the course of government formation talks which Aontú withdrew from last week, the topic of the rights of unborn children was met with little enthusiasm by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

“It was abundantly clear to us that neither political party had any appetite for any change in the law to make it even marginally more humane. And indeed, we received no assurances that either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael would prevent further deregulation of the human Right to Life when the law comes up for review next year”.