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Ireland: Only 1 in 10 GPs are providing abortions

Newly released data has revealed that only 12% of GPs in the Republic of Ireland are providing abortions.

While abortion can be legally performed in a GP surgery in Ireland up until the ninth week of pregnancy, only 405 out of 3,500 GPs actually provide abortions.

The Freedom of Information request released by Newstalk also found that only 10 out of 19 maternity units in Ireland carry out abortions.

According to Newstalk, the Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland “is working to increase the availability of abortion services in hospitals”.

Abortion activist Orla O’Connor said: “We believe in the National Women’s Council that all 19 should be offering a full suite of reproductive healthcare services…”

In 2019 however, Dr Trevor Hayes at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny said that they had decided unanimously not to perform abortions at the hospital. He warned that trying to force doctors to perform abortions against their will would force them out of the profession entirely.

“If this means that doctors and nurses and other medical professionals are being forced out of medicine, this will only add to the staffing crisis already crippling the health service”, said Dr Hayes.

Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said: “That the vast majority of GPs do not provide abortions is a strong indication that Irish GPs continue to recognise that in every interaction with a pregnant woman, they have two patients: the mother and her child. Abortion does not treat either patient. It harms one and ends the life of the other”.

“It is important that these GPs and hospitals that do not provide abortion hold firm. The law does not require them to perform abortions and if it did, many would rightly leave the profession”.

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Help stop three major anti-life threats.

Help fight the next phase of our battles against major assisted suicide and abortion up to birth threats.

Dear reader,

We are facing two major threats in the Lords - an extreme assisted suicide Bill and an abortion up to birth amendment.

THE GOOD NEWS - OUR STRATEGY IS WORKING

At Second Reading of the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill in the House of Lords, a record number of Peers spoke, and of those who took a position, around two-thirds opposed the assisted suicide Bill. That is more than double the number who supported it.

Our side also secured a significant win, with the establishment of a dedicated Lords Select Committee to further scrutinise the Bill’s proposals – and Committee Stage has been delayed until it reports.

This momentum has been built by tens of thousands of people like you. Thanks to your hard work, Peers are receiving a very large number of emails and letters by post, making the case against the Bill. 

Thanks to your support, we have been able to mount a major campaign in Parliament, in the media and online – alongside your own efforts – to keep us on course for our goal: that this dangerous Bill never becomes law.

BUT MORE CHALLENGES LIE AHEAD

We cannot become complacent. Well-funded groups - Dignity in Dying, My Death My Decision and Humanists UK - have poured millions into pushing assisted suicide. They can see support is slipping and will fight hard to reverse that.

This is not the only fight we are facing in the House of Lords.

At the same time, the Antoniazzi abortion up to birth amendment, which passed in the House of Commons in June, is moving through the House of Lords as part of the Crime and Policing Bill.

Second Reading will take place in a matter of weeks. It will then go on to Committee and Report Stages, where we will be up against the UK’s largest abortion providers – BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes) – who are expected to lobby for even more extreme changes to our abortion laws.

If the Antoniazzi amendment becomes law, it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason – including sex-selective purposes – at any point up to and during birth.

Thousands of vulnerable lives - at the beginning and the end of life - depend on what happens next. We must do everything in our power to stop these radical proposals.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Our campaign against the Leadbeater Bill in the House of Lords is working, but the work we have already done has significantly stretched our limited resources.

We are now stepping up our efforts against the assisted suicide Bill while launching a major push to stop the abortion up to birth amendment in the Lords. 

To fight effectively on both fronts, we aim to raise £183,750 by midnight this Sunday (5 October 2025).

Every donation, large or small, will help protect lives, and UK taxpayers can add 25p to every £1 through Gift Aid at no extra cost.

Will you donate now to help protect vulnerable lives from these two major threats?

URGENT
APPEAL
to protect vulnerable lives

Help stop three major anti-life threats.

Help fight the next phase of our battles against major assisted suicide and abortion up to birth threats.