Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have only a couple of brief questions which I will address to Dr. Sedgh. She stated that there are very few unsafe abortions in countries where there is a reasonably open and liberal abortion regime and there is almost a 30-fold increase in unsafe abortions in countries where legislation is very tight. I wonder how does that apply vis-à-visIreland where we have the right to travel and where we are in such close proximity to the UK. Do those figures hold up for Ireland?

Dr. Sedgh also stated, which surprised me when I saw these figures previously, that 73% of abortions are performed on married women as opposed to 27% on single girls. That would surprise people and raise a lot of eyebrows around the country because the narrative, especially, by those who are very much against abortion, is always centred on helpless young women who are probably confused, etc., whereas, in fact, the vast majority of abortions would seem to involve women who, because they are married, I assume, are older, more settled and more mature. I would like to check that figure with Dr. Sedgh to determine am I right.

Finally, there is one statement Dr. Sedgh made that surprises me and that I cannot rationalise. Russia jumps out on the map as being all green and, therefore, would be, I imagine, very liberal, yet Dr. Sedgh stated there was a reduction of 50% in abortions in Russia since the war or Stalinist period. It does not add up how they are still in the green box. What happened to cause such a reduction?