Five more hospitals will start carrying out abortions in December, more than five years after legislation legalising the procedure was passed. The State has had difficulty locating enough doctors willing to perform abortions.

The provision of terminations in St Luke’s hospital, Kilkenny; Letterkenny University Hospital; Wexford General Hospital; Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise; and Portiuncula hospital, Ballinasloe, follows the recruitment of staff specifically tasked to provide them.

With this latest expansion of the service, 17 out of 19 maternity units in the Republic will be terminate the lives of unborn children.

It is expected that terminations will be conducted in the two remaining units – Cavan General Hospital and South Tipperary General Hospital, Clonmel – next year.