TEENAGE PREGNANCIES AND ABORTION RATES

IN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 1965 - 2009

Year Teen Single Teen Total Single Abortion rate per

abortions Live Births Teen 1,000 women
Pregnancies aged 15-19
1965 Nil 439 439 0
1970 28 512 540 0.22
1975 231 910 1,141 1.61
1980 495 1,419 1,914 3.17
1985 574 1,689 2,263 3.56
1990 666 2,244 2,910 4.08
1995 698 2,352 3,050 4.23
2000 881 2,977 3,858 5.49
2001 939 2,876 3,815 6.01
2002 916 2,721 3,637 5.99
2003 836 2,580 3,416 5.58
2004 798 2340 3,138 5.50
2005 694 2261 2,955 4.80
2006 652 2,202 2,854 4.59
2007 544 2,251 2,795 3.87
2008 511 2,233 2,744 3.7
2009 484 2,047 2,531 3.5

Source: Abortion figures are abstracted from ONS and British Department of
Health Reports. Births are abstracted from CSO and Department of Health

Comment. Teenage abortions remained relatively stable over two decades up

to 1990, and increased to their highest level of 939 in 2001; single teenager
births peaked in 1999 and had increased sevenfold since 1965. In 2007, there
were 544 abortions on teenagers resident in the Republic (0.77% births), 235
abortions on teenagers in NI (1.0% births) and 43,955 (6.23% births) on
teenagers of England & Wales. Since 1999 in the Republic, single teenager
pregnancies are falling Irish teenage abortions, performed in England & Wales,
are also falling. In 2007 17.8% of teen parents shared same address. In 2008
22.3% of teen parents shared same address.

In 2009, there were 484 abortions on teenagers resident in the Republic of

Ireland ( 0.65% births), 185 abortions on teenagers in Northern Ireland (0.74%
births) and 40,067 abortions on teenagers in England and Wales (5.72% births)