Dr. Catherine Conlon:

We are conflating a mandatory three-day wait. Earlier, we described the circumstances under which someone may enter into a first consultation under this model of care. A woman goes in, discovers she is pregnant and begins the discussion and that is deemed to be under this model of care. Alternatively, a woman knows she is pregnant, has decided that she is going to proceed with an abortion and goes to have the consultation. There is a huge spectrum of people, between the person who goes in and has a consultation under this model of care without even knowing they are pregnant and the person who goes in with absolute certainty.

If we take the position that we want a form of healthcare that allows people to come in, have a full consultation, as Ms O'Shea said, with a holistic orientation to it and at the end of that consultation make a decision that is fully informed and that their healthcare professional provider can see is fully informed, and then can decide that they want to proceed with that healthcare, that is one possible outcome of the consultation.

In many cases, where a person visits a GP and has a conversation about healthcare, they might say they are going to return. They may return to proceed with the care discussed or they may decide not to do so. For my purposes, it is a quality outcome and a caring health system when any person who makes an informed decision as to whether or not to proceed with healthcare feels fully supported and has access to the care they wanted.

If we are saying that a legally mandated intervention would be put on any person, no matter how certain they are, no matter how close they are to a cut-off point, no matter what their logistical needs, and no matter how stressed and traumatised they might be by the pregnancy, that is not a compassionate, caring, quality health service. What we are saying is that only a legally mandated three-day wait will allow for women to make competent decisions. However, what I am saying is that women can make competent decisions in a model of care that allows them to have two fully-funded consultations in conjunction with healthcare professional who can determine whether they are making informed consent or not. If we are saying in an authoritarian way that only a mandatory three-day wait will ensure a woman who is seeking an abortion can make a competent decision, that is undemocratic and unfair.