AQW 9369/22-27

Ms Connie Egan
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 21/03/2024
Answered On Date: 08/04/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health why up-to-date statistics on terminations of pregnancy are not published on his Department's website.

Answer:

The Department publishes an annual report on terminations of pregnancy carried out in Northern Ireland. The most recent report was published in January 2023 and covered the period 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022.

The data contained within this report, however, only considers those terminations carried out in HSC Hospitals in Northern Ireland as an inpatient or day case, in line with the definitions and scope of previous iterations of this publication.

Following the commissioning of abortion services in Northern Ireland, as instructed by the Secretary of State on 2 December 2022, work is ongoing to ensure that future annual publications include statistics on all terminations of pregnancy in Northern Ireland. As a result, the next annual publication which has been delayed until June 2024 will include statistics from the introduction of the Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No 2) Regulations 2020 on 31 March 2020 to March 2023 respectively.