Official Statistics
All data contained within this publication are designated as official statistics.
Published by: Information & Analysis Directorate, Department of Health
Contact: statistics@health-ni.gov.uk
Reporting Period: 1 April 2020 – 31 March 2023
Publication Date: 20 June 2024
Date of Next Publication: 19 June 2025
Coverage: Northern Ireland
Frequency: Annual
This report provides statistics on abortions recorded in Northern Ireland between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2023.
The information presented is derived from the notification forms submitted to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Northern Ireland following each abortion procedure as required under regulation 10 of the 2020 Regulations. The information contained within the notification is set out in the Schedule to the 2020 Regulations.
Abortion Services are available across all five HSC Trusts. Further details on current service provision can be found at Abortion services | nidirect. Details on Safe Access Zones can be found at Safe Access Zones | Department of Health (health-ni.gov.uk)
The DoH has published abortion/termination of pregnancy statistics annually since 2007/08. These statistics provided the number of procedures only involving hospital admissions in Northern Ireland by HSC Trust, Country of Residence and Age Band. Since the introduction of the 2020 Abortion Regulations, the majority of abortions in Northern Ireland are early medical abortions and take place in an outpatient setting. Due to the changes in legislation the current statistics are not comparable with earlier publications.
Different methods can be used to lawfully terminate a pregnancy, depending on the gestation, and other circumstances relating to the individual woman. A medical abortion involves taking tablets (mifepristone and misoprostol) and a surgical abortion involves a minor operation (either a vacuum aspiration or dilatation and evacuation). This publication provides information relating to both methods. However, as the number of surgical abortions was very low for each year these methods have not been reported on separately.
For medical abortions, misoprostol can be taken at home, only if the woman has attended a clinic, hospital or premises used to provide primary medical services where she has been prescribed mifepristone and misoprostol, the woman has taken mifepristone at that place and the pregnancy has not exceeded its 10th week at that time.
Since the introduction of The Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No 2) Regulations 2020 on 31 March 2020 there have been 5,497 abortions carried out in Northern Ireland up until 31 March 2023, the vast majority of which were medical abortions. During 2020-2021 there were 1,574 abortions, which increased by 11.5% to 1,755 in 2021-2022 and increased further by 23.5% to 2,168 in 2022-2023.
Please note, during the three year period, 43 notifications did not provide a date of abortion and therefore could not be assigned to a financial year. These have not been included in the figures.
Across the three years, the highest number of abortions was consistently for women aged 18-34, with a high of 1,663 in 2022-2023. This was followed by those aged 35 and over and the lowest number was carried out for those aged under 18.
Please note, each year there were a number of records where age was not completed on the notification form. In 2020/21, 17 were incomplete, 35 were incomplete in 2021/22, and 36 were incomplete in 2022/23.
The Belfast Trust carried out the most abortions in each year (with 667 in 2022-2023), whilst the Western Trust carried out the fewest abortions across the three years.
Please note, in 2020/21, there were 5 records where the HSC Trust could not be determined. Figure 3 can be filtered by year using the drop-down filter. Commissioned abortion services commenced at different times during 2023. During this period, some Trusts carried out abortions for women residing in other Trust areas where services were not yet available. It is important to note that the number of abortions in each Trust area may therefore not be reflective of actual demand in that Trust.
The Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No 2) Regulations 2020 (the 2020 Regulations), set out grounds for when a pregnancy may be lawfully terminated by a registered medical practitioner.
Of the 1,574 abortions performed in 2020/21, the Grounds for Abortion had not been selected on 1 form. There were 3 records (out of 1,755) in 2021/22 and 2 (out of 2,166) in 2022/23 with Grounds for Abortion incomplete. Therefore, percentages have been based on the number of notifications with Grounds for Abortion completed.
The proportion of abortions performed under different grounds has remained similar across the three years with 96.2% of abortions (1,513) being performed under ground A in 2020-2021, 97.8% (1,713) in 2021-2022 and 97.6% (2,113) in 2022-2023.
In 2020-2021, 35 (2.2%) were performed under ground F, 13 (0.8%) under ground B, with the remainder under grounds D and E.
In 2021-2022, 17 (1.0%) were performed under ground F, 16 (0.9%) under ground E, with the remainder under grounds B and D.
In 2022-2023, 27 (1.2%) were performed under ground E, 21 (1.0%) under ground F, with the remainder under grounds B and G.
Abortions may be performed after 24 weeks in certain circumstances, for example, if the mother’s life is at risk or following a diagnosis of fatal fetal abnormality or severe fetal impairment. Abortions where the gestation is 24 weeks or over account for a very small number of abortions, with only 11 performed from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2023. Across the three years the vast majority of abortions were carried out under 10 weeks.
Please note, 35 records did not have the numbers of weeks gestation completed on the notification forms in 2020/21. In 2021/22, there were 36 records missing this information, while in 2022/23, there were 40 forms where the numbers of weeks gestation was not completed. Therefore, percentages have been based on the number of notifications with weeks gestation completed.
As noted under Figure 1, 43 notifications did not provide a date of abortion and therefore could not be assigned to a financial year. These records have not been included in any of the analysis.
As noted throughout this report there were some missing data in relation to age, gestation, grounds for abortion and HSC Trust.
In addition to this, limited data was available on previous abortions and obstetric history, complications, selective terminations, marital status and ethnicity. However, it was not necessary to collect this data in all cases. In particular, marital status and ethnicity will only be included in a notification form if disclosed by the woman. As the data was limited it is not possible to provide meaningful reporting on these measures.
Upon the introduction of the 2020 Regulations, HSC Trusts began to deliver uncommissioned early medical abortions services from 1 April 2020. Some Trusts had to pause these services at times until services were formally commissioned and therefore the data may not be fully reflective of demand at that time.
Commissioned abortion services commenced at different times during 2023. During this period, some Trusts carried out abortions for women residing in other Trust areas where services were not yet available. It is important to note that the number of abortions in each Trust area may therefore not be reflective of actual demand in that Trust by either under-reporting or over-reporting the number of abortions.
As Health & Care Number was not processed, it was not possible to eliminate any possible duplicate notifications or subsequent notifications following a failed abortion.