Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 March 2021
1544. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Health the number of terminations carried out in 2020 or the most recent full year for which such data exists in cases in which a fatal foetal abnormality was detected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14607/21]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, under section 20 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, a notification of each termination of pregnancy carried out under the legislation must be sent to the Minister for Health within 28 days of it being carried out. Section 20, subsections (3) and (4), require the Minister to prepare a report on the notifications received in a given year not later than 30 June the following year and thereafter to lay it before the Houses of the Oireachtas. This report may then be published.
In line with section 20 of the Act, therefore, the Annual Report on Notifications 2020 will be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on or before 30 June 2021. No information on notifications received under the Act will be released until after that report has been laid.
All the information permitted to be published under the Act for terminations of pregnancy carried out in 2019 was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 30 June 2020 and subsequently published the same day in the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 - Annual Report on Notifications 2019. The Annual Report on Notifications 2019 indicates that a total of 100 terminations of pregnancy were carried out under the grounds set out in section 11 of the Act in 2019.
For the Deputy’s further information, the full Annual Report on Notifications 2019 is available on the Department of Health’s website
