Pro-life groups say the HSE’s advice on disposing the remains of aborted babies is “deeply disturbing”.

The HSE website tells women who have had an abortion before 9 weeks of pregnancy that the remains “can be flushed down the toilet”, or wrapped in tissue and disposed of as they wish.

Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute said the HSE’s advice exposed the cruel indifference of Simon Harris’s abortion regime.

She added that the HSE’s advice is particularly appalling given the two years of fraught discussion about the possibility that babies were buried in a septic tank.