Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Aiken for giving voice to a lot of women in this country who are virtually silenced and at least bringing out their testimonies through her research. I want to ask her about a study by the University of Kent in March 2016 by Dr. Sally Sheldon. Dr. Aiken is obviously referring to Women on Web but Dr. Sheldon's study referred to two sites - Women on Web and Women Help Women. Dr. Sheldon reckons that there were 3,000 requests from people in Ireland to those sites alone every year. If we break that down in figures, which is really important for an accurate abortion rate in this country, let us say 70% of them came from the Republic of Ireland which would mean that 2,100 requests for abortion were made through these two sites in the South. If we divide that by 52 weeks, that is roughly 40 requests per week. Let us say only 35 of those people actually carry it out because not everybody who orders the pills goes through with it - some people change their mind - that would be 35 women every week, which would be five per day in the Republic of Ireland/ That is a much higher figure than anybody would ever have contended. Would those figures be accurate based on Dr. Aiken's research with just one site?