THE number of older Irish women having abortions in Britain has risen for the third year in a row.
A total of 836 women from the Republic aged 35 or over had abortions last year, up from 781 in this age group in 2009 and 720 in 2008.
The rise is in contrast to the overall rate of Irish women travelling to Britain for abortions, which has fallen for the last nine years.
But experts said that while women they had counselled were concerned about worsening finances, no studies had yet linked the rise in abortion in older women to the deepening recession.
Last year, 565 Irishwomen who had abortions in Britain were in their mid-to-late thirties, while 271 were aged over 40, according to figures from the UK Department of Health.
Overall, 4,402 Irish women -- 12 a day -- had abortions in the UK in 2010, down marginally from 4,422 in 2009.
The figure has fallen for nine successive years, down from a high of 6,673 in 2001.
Women in their twenties were the age group with the highest number of UK abortions (2,318), while there were 459 abortions among girls under 20 years, down from 511 in 2009.
Teenagers
However, the number of abortions among teenagers under 16 rose to 41, compared to 38 the previous year and 28 in 2008.
Dr Stephanie O'Keeffe, acting director of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency said: "Since 2001, the rate of abortion has fallen, particularly among teenagers and women in their 20s."
Asked about the abortion trend among older women, she said it was 2.7 per 1,000 women in 2001. This fell to 2.3 last year but has climbed back to 2.5.
"When you ask this age group why it was a crisis pregnancy, you are more likely to be told that their family is complete. There may be relationship difficulties and that it was not planned," said Dr O'Keeffe.
The Pro-Life campaign described the overall figures as encouraging and claimed that "legalised abortion ignores the humanity and rights of the unborn child as well as the latest medical research, highlighting the long-term negative effects of abortion on women".
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