The more than 10,000 abortions recorded last year is a “national scandal”, Independent TD Carol Nolan told the annual Rally for Life in Dublin on Saturday.

She also called for a taskforce to be established to tackle “soaring abortion rates”.

The founder of the Life Institute, Niamh Uí Bhriain, told the rally that those who opposed abortion may have lost the 2018 referendum but their numbers were growing.

“In March the Government was rocked to its core when its bid to remove the word mother from the Constitution received the largest No vote in the history of the State,” Ms Uí Bhriain said.

“A staggering 74 per cent of people ignored the media, ignored the political establishment, ignored the radically out of touch NGO’s [non-governmental organisations], to reject a referendum that we were told was going to pass easily.”

After the march arrived at the Customs House, Grammy award winning singer and songwriter, Kaya Jones, addressed the crowd by speaking of her own experience of abortion regret.

Jones spoke of how she felt pressured by the music industry to undergo abortions and how young women should learn from her “mistakes” and know their value and the value of human life more broadly.