201 Irish women went to the UK for an abortion in 2022, according to the UK Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.

On Thursday, it published statistics on abortion in England and Wales.

Of the 201 Irish women who travelled there for the procedure, 126 did so under what is called “ground C”, which allows for abortions due to physical or mental health concerns up to 24 weeks. In Ireland, abortion is permitted for any reason, but up to 12 weeks.

According to the Department, almost all of the abortions carried out under ground C were reported as being performed because of a ‘risk’ to the woman’s mental health.

In addition, 75 women had abortions performed under ground E – defined as “a substantial risk that, if the child were born, it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped”.

This included 37 cases where the unborn child had Down’s syndrome.