Fr Billy Swan
The number of abortions carried out in Ireland in 2023 have just been released from the Department of Health. They unmask an unfolding tragedy in our country that few can deny but many simply ignore. The figures reveal that in 2023, the number of Irish abortions exceeded 10,000 – 10,033 to be exact - the highest ever number of annual abortions performed in the State and the equivalent to the entire population of Dungarvan, Co Waterford, or of Ratoath, Co Meath.
A Shocking Loss of Life
This figure represents a 250% increase on the number of abortions performed prior to the vote to Repeal the Eighth amendment in 2018 (when 2,879 abortions were recorded for women travelling from Ireland to Britain). It is an annual increase of 1,877 abortions performed in 2022, representing a 19% increase in the space of one year. The climb in the abortion rate means that over 36,000 abortions have been performed since Ireland voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment, ushering in a HSE-led abortion regime in 2019. This has led to an increase in abortion rates year on year with 6,700 abortions carried out in 2021; 8,156 abortions in 2022 and now 10,033 abortions in 2023. Another significant statistic is that in Ireland in 2023, there were 54,678 births registered, meaning that 1 in 6 pregnancies now end in abortion. In the words of Deputy Carol Nolan TD, what is unfolding is an “epidemic of loss” with over 10,000 Irish citizens cancelled and eliminated in just one year.
But it’s not just in Ireland that the abortion numbers are rising. In England and Wales where abortion has been legal for many years, 2022 saw the highest number of abortions ever - an increase of 17% on 2021. According to statistics, more than a quarter of pregnancies are now terminated before birth in England and Wales. Scotland also saw a rise in abortions. Like Ireland, Scottish statistics are reported a year ahead compared to English data, showing that in 2023 there were 18,207 abortions, a 10% increase from 16,607 in 2022. And while I don’t have data for other European countries, the similar trends of increasing abortion rates in Ireland, England Scotland and Wales, is hardly surprising given moves in France and in the UN to have abortion declared as a human right.
The Lack of Political Accountability
Back to Ireland. The frightening statistics released by the HSE were largely ignored by main-stream media. Notwithstanding the shocking loss of life, what is also troubling is the complete absence of analysis or debate of these figures and trends by health and political leaders. In any democracy and society that values accountability and collective responsibility and screams out for it in other areas, the question must be asked as to why these statistics are deliberately ignored. The vast majority of politicians campaigned for repeal, led by the current Taoiseach and a former Taoiseach who told the electorate that should abortion be legalised in Ireland, it would be safe, legal and rare. And while it might be legal, it is certainly not rare as the figures testify. So where then is the political accountability?
Journalist Breda O’Brien captures the irony well when she compares false predictions and promises made before the vote on Brexit and what transpired a few years later. Shortly after the Conservative Party’s drubbing at the recent general election in Britain, Craig Oliver, David Cameron’s former director of communications, suggested: “What we’ve discovered is: you can’t tell people Brexit will slash migration and see it double and still expect the public to listen" (The Irish Times, 14th July 2024). Not the same in Ireland it seems. We were told that abortion figures wouldn’t rise with repeal. Five years later they have more than doubled and yet, no one is held to account.
Ideology
The absence of accountability begs the serious question of who controls the narratives our attention, sympathies and energies are drawn to. To put it differently, who can we trust to direct our concerns to what is objectively wrong and right and objectively true and false. There must be accountability or else it boils down to who shouts the loudest or who has the greatest power. This brings us to the increasing influence of ideologies.
An ideology is an idea that contains some truth but one that is pushed forward by parties with interests without proper scientific evidence to back it up and often without sufficient time for discernment before it becomes law. A common trend in the push of ideologies is that any negative consequences of the idea are bracketed out, minimised and ignored. Spokespeople for this consequences are often cancelled. Memories are still clear of the debates leading up to the vote on repeal in May 2018. Many advocates for repeal were rightly concerned for the thousands of women who travelled abroad for abortions each year – 2, 879 of them in 2018, the year before repeal. They argued that legalising abortion would simply be a matter of allowing these women to have proper care at home. They argued in simplistic terms of legalisation stopping the export of our problem. A fair point, only if it was that simple. I clearly recall debates where a significant rise in numbers was predicted by Pro-Life advocates. Those who foretold the huge increase, based on the experience of other countries, were accused of scaremongering while the right to choose was trumped above all else, even if it meant ending the life of another. While the positions of believers are often accused of being un-scientific, the increasing scientific evidence that suggests that life does begin before birth, was cast aside.
Further proof that the abortion issue is ideologically driven is under-promotion and under-funding of alternatives that support life and the women who decide to keep their child. In the words of Carol Nolan TD: “Thousands of women are being betrayed by the over-promotion of abortion as the only possible response to pregnancy in certain circumstances and the cruel under promotion of life-affirming alternatives”.
More evidence of this destructive ideology is the marginalisation of voices that call for action to reduce the spiralling numbers of abortions in Ireland. Instead of the government giving at least a nod in the direction of the increasing rates being something negative, governments in Europe are making abortion laws and policies increasingly liberal which will inevitably increase the numbers of abortions even further. When the latest figures were released, there was no evident outrage, no calls for enquiries, no outpouring of sympathy for little lives lost. The only voices likely to be heard and listened to by the State are those calling for even greater liberalisation.
Cries for Help
Yet some voices for the voiceless do pierce the silence and reach those prepared to listen. One such voice is Kaya Jones, an American singer and former member of the Pussycat Dolls. She spoke at the recent ‘Rally for Life’ in Dublin about her regret and sorrow about the three abortions she underwent and the lack of awareness that she had about the impact those abortions would have on her life. She now sees it as part of her life’s mission to warn women about the consequences of abortion, citing concerns about rising suicide rates, PTSD and depression among women who have underwent abortions. She also challenges cultural influences that do not value human life, and see unborn babies as disposable, leading to women having multiple abortions and then living with the sad and heart-breaking consequences afterwards.
In the UK, comedian Grace Campbell has also written powerfully about the pain and sadness she felt after undergoing an abortion. Writing in the Guardian, the 29 year old daughter of journalist and former political advisor Alastair Campbell, describes how she was never informed by the doctor performing the abortion what she should expect afterwards or the difficulties she would have coming to terms with what happened. She wrote about “depression like I’ve never experienced before…a grief for something I never knew, but something I know I would have loved very much". These are just two witnesses from an increasing number of people who are finding their voice and being a voice for the voiceless.
A Church Response
By way of a Church response to these latest abortion figures, it is not enough to lament them. Sorrow must translate into action. Yet action must be informed by clear headed principles and core beliefs that must be re-stated over and over again, especially at a time when abortion is becoming normalised in our culture. The recently published document Dignitas Infinita from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith offers us direction in this regard:
“Today, in many people’s consciences, the perception of its gravity has become progressively obscured. The acceptance of abortion in the popular mind, in behaviour, and even in law itself is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, even when the fundamental right to life is at stake…. Given such a grave situation, we need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception… It must, therefore, be stated with all force and clarity, even in our time, that this defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development” (para. 47).
That said, the Church must learn from her own mistakes of the past and have a heart for vulnerable people in crisis pregnancies. We must offer them compassion, understanding, hope and support. During his homily at a Mass prior to the ‘Rally for Life' on 6th July, Bishop Kevin Doran, Chair of the Council for Life of the Irish Bishops said that: “Women and babies need us to stand with them, and so do men. Doctors, nurses and pharmacists need our support and encouragement to stand for the truth and to act with integrity”.
He also spoke about the spirit of compassion that must animate all our efforts to make our culture more respectful of all life: “For some women, pregnancy is a lonely time and we often hear that abortion is a lonely choice. There are people around them, but there is nobody with them”. His message is clear – with people effected by crisis pregnancies, we don’t just talk the talk. We must also walk the walk with the people involved, and always in their shoes.
In response to the spiraling numbers and loss of life, groups like the Pro-Life campaign and the Life Institute have called for a task force to be set up to examine the situation and tackle the root causes. This is important as are efforts to prevent the situation becoming even worse, such as retaining the 72-hour waiting period currently in place that has saved an estimated 5,000 lives. The truth is that if we don’t convince the main political parties to retain this restriction, it will be abolished after the next election, leading to a dramatic increase in the number of babies who will die. We must not allow this to happen.
Another ‘coalface’ response must surely be the education of our young people in families and in our schools. I have outlined above the destructive power of ideologies around this issue that push abortion to be a central part of health care. Without doubt, the abortion rates are being influenced by the contraceptive culture that urges people to believe that to conceive a child as a consequence of sexual relations is something to be avoided and if it does happen, it is a problem to be fixed. This takes us back again to the link between the unitive nature of sexual relations that can never be separated from the relationship with family, commitment and the bringing about of new life. It is critically important that the Church becomes a home and school of support for parents to challenge these prevailing ideologies and to safe-guard a vision of human sexuality and dignity that retains meaning and protects life. Nothing less will do to combat this current epidemic of loss now in progress in our country. Nothing less will do to support the thousands of women who are being betrayed by the over-promotion of abortion as the only possible response to pregnancy in certain circumstances.
Conclusion
On the day after the results of the 2018 abortion referendum became known, Eilis O'Hanlon wrote in the Sunday Independent: “The point is now much nearer when Ireland will no longer have to think about abortion quite so much, or so intensively…. The future will involve turning a blind eye to some unpleasant realities.” Ireland might not want to think about abortion as much or as intensely but to turn a blind eye is not an option for those who care about our future. Ireland needs to think about abortion and life for the sake of our future and for the sake of those who walk alone and suffer in silence.
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