At least 85 women from the Republic had abortions in UK clinics in January and February, compared to 157 for the same two months in 2018.

That’s according to figures from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the largest provider of abortions in the UK. The figures do not include the numbers of Irish women attending other UK abortion clinics.

Around one-third of the women were under nine weeks’ pregnant, which means they would have been eligible for an abortion drug through a GP’s certification, rather than a surgical abortion in a hospital. According to the Irish Independent, some women have said the steps that need to be taken in Ireland to secure a medical abortion—two visits to a GP spaced three days apart—are “too cumbersome” and they preferred the “easier option” of going to the UK.