Nine women travelled to the UK for an abortion every day last year
Nine women travelled to the UK for an abortion every day last year, according to figures from the UK Department of Health.
The full report can be read here
That is according to new figures which also show the number of people travelling has halved over the past 15 years.
It comes as the UN Human Rights Committee has warned the state to change the current abortion laws for the second time in 13 months.
Colm O’Gorman from Amnesty International says there needs to be a referendum on the 8th amendment, and says these travel figures do not show the full picture.
"Does anybody really believe that every Irish woman or girl who travels to the UK actually gives an Irish address?
"They also don’t include the number of women and girls in Ireland who procure abortions by importing, contrary to the law, abortion medication and those women and girls are doing so despite the fact that they could face a 14-year prison sentence if it was detected that they had done so.
"So those are minimum numbers," he said.
The Pro Life Campaign has said the committee ruling is undemocratic.
Their spokesperson is Cora Sherlock.
"I think that the UN’s interference once again in Ireland’s abortion laws is highly undemocratic, this is not a court ruling.
"The Irish people chose to protect unborn human life in Ireland," she said.
