Debate contribution: Abortion Data
Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on .
- MLA
- Mr Mike Nesbitt
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 10 June 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Abortion Data
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4495262
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for his question. The Department will publish comprehensive data relating to abortions in Northern Ireland on 20 June this year. It will cover the three-year period from the introduction of the Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations on 31 March 2020 to 31 March 2023. My understanding is that the Department's annual publications had under-reported the number of abortions in Northern Ireland since the law was changed in 2020. That is recognised, and, although the accurate totals have been disclosed regularly through Assembly questions for written answer, I assure the Member that they will be corrected in the forthcoming publication for each of the three reporting years. The issue arose because the methodology in place prior to the law change was set up to capture only those procedures involving hospital admissions. However, since the introduction of the 2020 abortion regulations, the majority of abortions in Northern Ireland are early medical abortions and take place in an outpatient setting. Following an instruction from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to the Department on 2 December 2022 to formally commission abortion services, a process has been under way to verify up-to-date statistics from the date of the law change in Northern Ireland. Those are the statistics that will be published later this month.
216 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.04 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.43 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.99 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:37 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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