A call has been made for abortion to be legalised after the publication of figures showed 5,585 women travelled to Britain for abortions last year.
The Alliance for Choice called for abortion to be legalised after the statistics were released by the British department of health yesterday.
"5,585 women are still forced to travel to Britain to obtain an abortion, legal in Britain since 1967, whilst the Taoiseach still refuses to follow the advice of the Supreme Court and legislate for the X case as a minimum," said Sian Muldowney of the Alliance for Choice.
Last year, 5,585 women gave Irish addresses at British abortion clinics, down from 6,217 in 2004. The figures have fallen by almost 1,000 since 2001. The number of Irish teenagers having abortions in Britain dropped from 903 in 2001 to 655 in 2005.
Despite the decrease, Ms Muldowney was critical of the Government for not introducing legal abortion. "Ireland needs to face up to its responsibility to Irish men and women to provide a comprehensive sex education strategy, a national sexual health services strategy and safe and legal abortion in Ireland," she said.
The Alliance for Choice is a pro-choice organisation based in Dublin. According to Ms Muldowney the group have approximately one hundred members. She refused to disclose whether any of the group's members include politicians or members of the Oireachtas. The group were previously organised as the Alliance for a No Vote in the run up to the 2002 Abortion referendum.