Dr. Karena Hanley:

A crisis pregnancy is a pregnancy which is neither planned nor desired by the woman concerned and which represents a personal crisis for her. Crisis pregnancy can affect women of any reproductive age, social group or area of the country. Crisis pregnancies are common and constitute up to 13% of all pregnancies. While most of these pregnancies result in parenthood, approximately 14% end in miscarriage, 21% with abortion and 1% with adoption. It remains the case that more than 3,000 women travel from this country every year to obtain abortion elsewhere. Of concern is the rising number of more than 1,000 each year who obtain abortifacient pills online and administer them personally and without medical supervision.

How do we prevent crisis pregnancy? Effective contraception is key. GPs try to be proactive in the provision of available contraception to all women who are sexually active. Our colleagues in the HSE sexual health and crisis pregnancy programme support a range of educational programmes, research, counselling and medical services. The Irish Family Planning Association also provides excellent contraceptive care. Despite all of the efforts of the Government, educational initiatives and services, crisis pregnancy cannot always be prevented. Most GPs witness and take care of crisis pregnancy on a common basis. We know that abortion rates are lowest in health systems where contraceptive services are most readily available. As the committee heard yesterday, however, there are still barriers to contraceptive services in Ireland, in particular the cost and misplaced concerns around confidentiality, especially among younger women. The eighth amendment does not actually impact upon contraception and emergency contraception management for Irish women.