asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many therapeutic terminations of pregnancy were carried out in Great Britain during each of the past three years on women from Northern Ireland; and what was the estimated cost for each individual of having to leave the Province for this operation.

The latest available figures for abortions carried out in Great Britain on women giving addresses in Northern Ireland are as follows:

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is satisfied that the fall in number of therapeutic terminations of pregnancy in the second quarter of 1981 was not caused by the mandatory revision of form HSA4 and that women did not find it consequently more difficult to have this operation carried out when indicated and thought desirable.

As form HSA4 did not 39 change the grounds on which an abortion may be carried out under the Abortion Act, there is no reason to suppose that its introduction should have influenced the number of abortions performed. The numbers of abortions performed often fluctuate between quarters within the same year.