Professor Eva Pajkrt:

Before there was the legislation there were abortions. It always starts the way Ireland is starting. There are always a couple of people who think they have a strong case, that they should fight for it and stand up to do something about it. We had an abortion clinic and while the academic medical centre did not exist, it resulted from that movement. There were very strong advocates for abortion. They had been performing abortion before it was legalised. This is Holland. We go along with the flow until the issue becomes so big that everybody is talking about it and everybody is ready, then we get a law. It starts with a couple of people who will go against what maybe they should be doing but who feel strongly that they should change things. That is basically what Ireland is doing now. There is such a strong feeling that things should change. Ireland cannot come from where it is now to our system. It will never work that way. It will be a very slow and long process and the fighters will be needed. They may be the politicians but they will also be medical people, maybe volunteers, or women who had an abortion, maybe women who never had an abortion but really feel strongly about it, or maybe men who think that way. It will go. I do not know how else to tell the Irish what to do. I do not have the solution to hand.