Annual abortion rates in Northern Ireland have almost doubled since Westminster ordered the decriminalisation of abortion, according to an analysis of official figures.

A Freedom of Information request to the Department of Health by the pro-life advocacy group Both Lives Matter reported that, as of 23rd May 2023, 5,648 abortions have taken place in NI since the abortion law was changed at the end of March 2020.

Dawn McAvoy, Both Lives Matter lead said, “Nearly 6,000 abortions on average across the three years since the new abortion regulations were laid out at the end of March 2020, signals that annual abortion rates for NI have nearly doubled”.

She added that around 2,000 lives were being saved from abortion every year by the previous law’s protections for human life, which amounted to 100,000 lives for the duration of Northern Ireland’s exemption from England’s radical 1967 abortion regime.