Dr. Brendan O'Shea:

To put that in the context of the Deputy's question, which concerned how these risks are amplified by the requirement to travel, they are amplified because travelling results in delay, which increases the probability that any of these complications might happen. There are also peculiar risks relating to travel, including the need to organise a journey. We have to see this in a social context. Often a crisis pregnancy is a secretive thing. It is not easy sometimes for the woman to collaborate with the people who normally help her because they do not know about it or she does not want them to know about it. There is the anxiety and stress associated with trying to find money to organise the travel. It is often a real issue for these women. If they have children at home, arrangements have to be put in place. It becomes a huge stressor to organise all of that in an aura of secrecy, criminalisation and guilt. The work of organising a journey like that in the situation of early pregnancy, which is characterised by tiredness, fatigue, nausea, stress, anxiety and uncertainty, adds a significant additional psychological risk which makes it extremely difficult for women, who are sisters, mothers, aunts and wives of ours.