Almost 150 Irish minors travelled to England or Wales last year for legal abortions according to new statistics published this morning by the UK Department of Health.
The statistics show that 37 girls under the age of 16 gave an address in the Irish Republic having travelled to the UK for an abortion in 2011, a 10 per cent drop when compared on the previous year.
A further 111 girls between the ages of 16 and 17 travelled to the UK for abortions, a 3.5 per cent drop on the statistics for 2010.
Meanwhile, 295 women between the ages of 18 and 19 travelled, a 3 per cent drop on the 2010 figure.
The overall number of women travelling to England and Wales dropped for the tenth year in a row from 4,402 in 2010 to 4,149 last year, a 7 per cent drop. More than half that number were women in their twenties; 1,289 were women in their thirties while 257 women were over the age of 40.
The vast majority, almost 70 per cent of Irish women who travelled to England or Wales for abortions, did so at between three and nine weeks of pregnancy; 16 per cent were between 10 and 12 weeks gestation; 12 per cent were between 13 and 19 weeks pregnant; while 3 per cent, or 114 women, were over 20 weeks gestation.
Niall Behan, chief executive of the Irish Family Planning Association welcomed the statistics which saw the lowest number of Irish women travel to the UK for abortions since 1991.
"We welcome the reduction particularly the reduction for teenagers," Mr Behan said. "We're putting that down to improved access to sexual health education in schools and more generally. Parents need to talk to their children around the issues but also access to contraception, particularly emergency contraception."
The morning after pill was made available without prescription in all pharmacies last February after the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) approved one brand of emergency contraceptive licensed in Ireland for use as an over-the-counter medicine.
However, Mr Behan warned that there was always a question as to whether the statistics were a true representation of the number of Irish women travelling given that there are those who would provide UK addresses who would not be represented in this data set.
"There's always been the question mark of underreporting and the question of Irish women travelling to other jurisdictions. They've always come with the warming that these figures give an indication but they might not be the full picture."