Dr. Caitriona Henchion:

As Ms Taylor said, the three-day period does not provide any medical help. There is a proper informed consent process in any procedure, and medical abortion would be considered such a procedure. A doctor has to go through clearly with the person all of the adverse effects, risks, benefits and everything else involved. The doctor also has to establish that the person is certain about going through with it. In a proper consent process, anyone who is not certain or ready to proceed is immediately identified. Obviously, the person will not go ahead at that time and may say that he or she needs a little more time. This often happens with many procedures, yet we are not relying on the law to make them take that time. Rather, we are relying on good clinical skills to identify these situations and communicate well enough to ensure that people understand that they have extra time. In no consultation do we speak as much about the law as we do in abortion consultations. We never bring it into any other consent process. The only other time that the law might come into a consultation would be when dealing with minors, where a doctor might have to apprise them of his or her responsibilities in terms of reporting.

The thing about speaking about the law in abortion consultations is that one becomes used to doing it and almost forgets that it is not a medical part of the consultation. A doctor has to advise people because they have to understand that there is a 12-week limit, which means that, if the procedure has not worked, they have to figure out what they are going to do quickly because, if they do not, they may find themselves beyond 12 weeks, still pregnant and having taken medication that could cause harmful effects to that pregnancy. The law is an ever-present part of these consultations in a way that is not related to the medical practice side.