Abortions Increase 300% in Ireland as More and More Babies Killed

A staggering rise in abortions has shaken Ireland, with 10,852 unborn children killed in 2024, a 280% increase from the 2,879 abortions recorded in 2018 when the nation’s pro-life laws were repealed. The new figures from the Irish Department of Health reveal the grim milestone, the highest since the 2018 referendum legalized abortion in the formerly pro-life Catholic country.

The shocking figures has pro-life advocates mourning the loss of life and decrying unfulfilled promises of “rare” abortions when the referendum was approved.

The 2018 referendum, which saw 66.4% of Irish voters repeal the Eighth Amendment guaranteeing the right to life of the unborn, paved the way for the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act, effective January 2019. Pro-life campaigners warned at the time that liberalizing abortion laws would lead to a surge in terminations, a prediction now borne out by the latest figures showing one in six pregnancies ending in abortion.

Follow LifeNews on the MeWe social media network for the latest pro-life news free from Facebook’s censorship!

“That’s a truly horrifying figure, and it’s the opposite of what senior politicians promised the public would happen if they voted for repeal in 2018,” said Eilís Mulroy, spokesperson for the Pro Life Campaign, in an interview with Catholic News Agency.

She noted that pro-life groups had cautioned during the referendum campaign that Ireland could mirror Britain’s abortion rates, where one in five pregnancies ended in abortion at the time.

“We have nearly caught up with that figure — we’re now at 1 in 6 babies’ lives ending in abortion,” Mulroy said, adding that Britain’s latest figures show nearly one in three pregnancies now end in abortion.

David Quinn of the Iona Institute criticized the government’s messaging during the referendum, particularly then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s claim that abortion would be “safe, legal, and rare.”

“Leo Varadkar, when he announced the referendum in early 2018, said abortion would be ‘safe, legal, and rare,’ which clearly is not the case,” Quinn told CNA. “So would Leo Varadkar consider 11,000 rare? They were spinning a line about it being rare that was convenient to them, and it was convenient to those who voted yes to believe it as well.”

Pro-life advocates argue that the referendum was sold to voters on “hard cases,” such as fatal fetal abnormalities, while downplaying that over 98% of 2024 abortions occurred in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, often involving healthy babies and mothers.

“It was sold to the voters on the hard cases — like the baby is going to die soon after birth,” Quinn said. “And there was very little focus on the fact that the vast majority of babies aborted will be the healthy children of healthy women.”

Catherine Robinson of Right to Life UK called the 2024 figures a “tragedy,” stating, “The 10,852 abortions in 2024 are a tragedy. Every single one of these was a unique human person whose life was ended shortly after it began.”

She highlighted the dramatic 62.8% increase in abortions since 2019, when 6,666 terminations were recorded, underscoring the rapid escalation since legalization.

Mulroy pointed to a lack of support for women facing unplanned pregnancies, noting, “Right now, when you ring the government-funded helpline to say that you are in an unplanned pregnancy, you really are only getting one piece of information, and that’s about where the nearest abortion-performing doctor is.”

She argued that providing comprehensive support and information could reduce abortion numbers, a view shared by pro-life groups pressing for a meeting with Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to address the crisis.

The post Abortions Increase 300% in Ireland as More and More Babies Killed appeared first on LifeNews.com.