False! In reality Holland actually has twice the abortion rate of Ireland, which the statistics below clearly show.

This pro-choice lie stems from many places, but more recently from Colm O’Gorman’s speech at the Citizens Assembly 2017.

His exact words were: “Countries with more liberal abortion laws generally have a lower rate of abortions. If you look at the European standards, one of the lowest rate of abortion in Europe is in the Netherlands where they have perhaps the most liberal abortion laws in Europe. So there is no evidence, in any way, to support the floodgates will be open, and in reality there is no solid evidence that in any way supports the idea that Ireland has lower abortion rates than in any other country in Europe. All the evidence suggests at least the opposite.”¹

The evidence that Colm refers to here is non-existent.

In fact, the abortion rate in Ireland in 2010 was 4.5 abortions per 1000 woman aged 15-44 years.² In 2014 the Irish abortion rate dropped and the HSE put the rate to be 3.8 per 1000 woman aged 15-44. They retrieved this number from the UK Department of Health figures showing the number of woman who gave Irish addresses at abortion clinics in the UK. The number of abortions in 2014 alone reached 3,735.³

Now let’s compare this with Hollands abortion rate. The abortion rate in 2010 was 9.7 per 1000 woman aged 15-44.⁵ The rate of abortions has fallen in the Netherlands in recent years, but only to roughly 8.5 per 1000 women and 158.4 abortions per 1000 live births, respectively, that is one aborted baby for every six newborns.⁶ See for yourself Holland’s past abortion rates, they are nowhere near as low as Mr. O’Gorman suggests.

“In 2015,” an article by Dutch News, “reports the healthcare inspectorate, there were 30,803 abortions, a rise of 442 from the previous year.”⁸ This increase has shaken the Netherlands number of abortions per year which was around 28,000 since the beginning of the 21^st century.⁹ If we take 28,000 abortions per year and multiply it by sixteen years, for example, we are left with 448,000 abortions for a country who opened the flood gates and now allows for some the most lax abortion laws globally, and Mr. O’Gorman thought that the Irish abortion rates were worse?

The abortion rates in Ireland may not be as high as Holland’s now, but they certainly could be if we allow the removal of the 8^th Amendment to the Irish Constitution which has saved over 100,000 lives already.¹⁰

Here are tables indicating the number of Irish women accessing abortion abroad in  comparison to the last table which shows rates of abortion in Holland.

Women From the Republic of Ireland Accessing Abortion Services in the Netherlands 2006 – 2013; Source: HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme ¹¹

Year	Number
2014	16
2013	12
2012	24
2011	33
2010	31
2009	134
2008	351
2007	451
2006*	461

*first year of data collection

Women From the Republic of Ireland Accessing Abortion Services in England and Wales 1980 – 2016; Source: UK Department of Health¹²

Year	Number of abortions
2016	3,265
2015	3,451
2014	3,735
2013	3,679
2012	3,982
2011	4,149
2010	4,402
2009	4,422
2008	4,600
2007	4,686
2006	5,042
2005	5,585
2004	6,217
2003	6,320
2002	6,522