Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I think the witnesses' clear points strengthen the points they are making. They come from the background of public health. I note that last week the WHO released figures showing 25.1 million abortions in the world are unsafe. We are talking, largely, in this section although not exclusively about first trimester abortions, which the witnesses said are very simple and they can be provided at primary care level on an outpatient basis. I agree with the witnesses. There was an article last week in The Guardianwritten by the head of obstetrics and gynaecology in Britain. The point was made that the service should be provided by nurses and midwives. Medication is prescribed in cases of missed miscarriages anyway. On the issue of access, which seems to me to be the key issue which we as a committee need to address, that approach would be one way in which the service could be made available and it would address overcoming some of the barriers. Do the witnesses have any comments on that or have they had any dialogue on the issue?