A call has been made for an ‘urgent debate’ as a report shows GPs made financial claims for prescribing drugs for 6,700 chemical abortions last year.

The figure is included in the third annual report on the provision of abortion in Ireland, published on Wednesday by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.

The number is slightly up on previous years. There were 6,577 notified abortions in 2020 and 6,666 in 2019.

There were also 64 surgical abortions conducted in hospitals last year.

Unusually, the report showed a discrepancy with the number of official notifications of abortions, at 4,513.

The report said this was likely due to difficulties associated with the covid19 pandemic and the HSE cyber-attack.

In response to the report, the Pro-Life Campaign noted that almost 20,000 abortions have taken place in Ireland over the three year period since the law changed in 2018.

A spokesperson said it shows it has led to a 70% increase in the annual number of abortions.

Eilís Mulroy said: “Following today’s devastating news that 19,943 abortions have occurred in Ireland since the new law came into effect, we need an urgent public debate to look for ways to dramatically reduce these numbers.