Despite the country's ban on terminations, abortion does still exist in Ireland.

Every day, up to 12 women travel abroad for the procedure, while others illegally order abortion pills online. The exact numbers of women who order these pills from overseas is unknown, however former master of the National Maternity Hospital Dr Peter Boylan says that 2,000 women had abortion pills delivered to them last year. Similarly, it is estimated that over the past 10 years more than 6,000 abortion pills have been seized by Revenue. So, abortion does happen here already, but is the number of women seeking to procure abortions likely to rise exponentially in the event of repeal? It's hard to give a definitive answer to that question seeing as the eighth has yet to be repealed, but looking at some similar situations in other countries could give us an indication as to what might happen. A recent study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute showed that countries with heavy restrictions on abortion have higher rates of abortion than those where the procedure is legal. Abortion tends to be considerably safer in countries where it is "broadly legal" as opposed to those where it is not. The report, published by NBC News, also showed that women in developing countries are far more likely to have abortions. For example, North America's abortion rate currently stands at 13 per 1,000 women - as does the UK's. These are some of the lowest rates rates recorded. The highest recorded rates came from South America which stood at 48 women per 1,000 between 2010 and 2014, and the Caribbean which had 58 per 1,000. Less than 3 percent of Latin American and Caribbean women live in regions where terminations are broadly legal. Overall, the rates of pregnancies ending in abortion fell from 39 percent to 27 percent in developed countries between 2010 and 2014. This contrasted the 3 percent rise in pregnancies ending in abortion in developing countries during the same time. So, why are abortion rates in developed countries dropping? There are a number of reasons why this could be happening, but one of the most prominent is access to free contraception. When women have access to no-cost birth control, unwanted pregnancies and abortion rates tend to lower considerbly. A 2012 study showed that in America, these rates dropped by between 62 and 78 percent over the course of three years. Minister for Health Simon Harris has already said that he plans to make free contraception a reality for all women in Ireland. During a debate in March, Harris said that proposals were being drawn up to figure out how such a scheme would work. He said:

“If our underlying principle is that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare, then we must do all we can to reduce the number of crisis pregnancies and to support women in every way."

Similarly, TDs recently proposed an overhaul of Ireland's sex education system to provide students with factual and objective information that is not influenced by religious ethos. The sex education bill passed through the second stage of the Dáil last month. You can follow the rest of the 'Fact or Fiction?' series here.