Over 3,600 Irish women travelled to the UK for an abortion in 2013, new figures from the UK Department of Health have shown.

However, according to the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA), while this represents a 7% decrease on 2012's figure, the high number of women availing of these services ‘highlights Ireland's continued degrading treatment of pregnant women'.

"At least 3,679 women were forced to travel to the UK last year to access a safe and legal abortion because they are denied these necessary health services in their own country. Every day our clients tell us about their experiences of being abandoned by the Irish healthcare system and forced to rely on the services of another country," commented IFPA chief executive, Niall Behan.

Since 1980, almost 160,000 women have accessed abortion services in the UK and while 3,679 is the official figure for 2013, this is probably an underestimation as not all Irish women provide their Irish addresses and some travel to other countries for abortions.

"These women are not criminals but the law treats them as such because they are seeking a service that is illegal in almost every circumstance in Ireland," Mr Behan said.

He insisted that not having abortion services in Ireland does not deter women from getting one, ‘but it does act as a barrier to receiving care'.

"As long as abortion remains criminalised and Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution is in place, women with unplanned or unwanted pregnancies are treated as second class citizens. It is long past time to change our stigmatising and discriminatory laws and provide access to safe and legal abortion in Ireland," Mr Behan added.