The HSE spent €2.9 million providing abortions through GPs in 2019.

This refers only to abortions that took place in the first nine weeks of pregnancy, using drugs prescribed and dispensed by a GP, and does not include surgical abortions which occur only in hospital settings and cater for pregnancies beyond nine weeks.

The figure was confirmed by Geraldine Crowley, Assistant National Director, Primary Care Strategy and Planning in response to a parliamentary question from Carol Nolan TD.

Commenting on the News, Deputy Nolan called the figure “staggering”, especially considering that “an almost equal amount of funding (€3.1million) was allocated for the implementation of the entire National Women and Infants Health Programme (NWIHP) in 2019”.

She continued: “When you put this information, and the recent annual report on the number of abortions that took place in 2019 together, what we now have is an emerging sense of how much abortion is going to ‘cost’ in terms of the loss of human life and the financial resources that could be better spent at the community level”.

“It is also clear however that the fees of €2.9 million do not represent anything like the true financial cost because that number only refers to abortions which took place at 9 weeks or under in a community setting. It takes no account of the costs associated with the delivery of abortion ‘services’ beyond 9 weeks and which have to take place in our maternity hospitals.”