PR: Sharp rise to 8,156 abortions amounts to a "catastrophic loss of life"

The Life Institute has said that a sharp rise in the number of abortions carried out in 2022 represented a "catastrophic loss of life" and that the government needed to take measures to tackle the rising abortion rate. 

Addressing the figures released by the Department of Health today, spokeswoman for the pro-life group, Megan Ní Scealláin, said that the "huge jump" in abortions represented a 22% rise on the estimations for 2021. 

"8,156 abortions in 2022 is a heart-breaking number, and an indication that the government is failing women as well as unborn babies," she said. "We were told abortion would be 'safe, legal and rare': it is anything but." 

“Less than 3,000 abortions were carried out for women travelling from Ireland in 2018, with perhaps another 1,000 receiving abortion pills, and now we are seeing this deeply shocking, disturbing rise in the number of babies being killed by abortions," she said.. 

“The abortion review should have been looking at measures to reduce the number of abortions, not increase them,” she said. “Most people, including many reluctant Yes voters, don't want an increase in the abortion rate – but the government seems to be rushing to please the extremists instead of heeding their own promise to voters that abortion would be ‘rare’.”

“One in 8 babies is now being aborted, missing from our schools, from our families, our communities. Everyone of those 8,156 abortions ended the life of a living, growing child. It’s a tragic, heartbreaking outcome - and it should give us pause. It should bring the government to rethink abortion." 

She said that the Life Institute was doubling down on its 'Time to Think' campaign over the summer - reminding voters that they had been promised the 3-day wait before abortion as a 'safeguard'. 

"Why would anyone want to increase the number of abortions, which is what will likely happen if we remove this time to let women think, to choose life?" she asked. "Isn't 8,156 abortions in one year already a huge number of lives ended? Most people don't want that number to increase again." 

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