Ms Alison Spillane:

It varies. Across Europe, access-on-request provisions tend to be around the 12-week to 14-week mark. The important thing there is that many of these laws are quite old. Ireland was significantly behind the times in reforming its Constitution to allow for abortion access. Many countries across Europe introduced abortion laws in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when less was known about abortion care. Certainly, at that point early medical abortion did not exist. Laws generally tend to allow for a period of on-request or on broad socioeconomic grounds and then more restrictive grounds thereafter. However, it is important to look at what is emerging from the World Health Organization. Just last month, the WHO published its abortion care guideline. It has assessed global evidence and clinical best practice with respect to abortion and it has come up with important recommendations about the way the law relating to abortion should function. One is that abortion should always be decriminalised in all circumstances. Another is that mandatory waiting periods and gestation limits function as barriers to access and they should not be included in law.

From our perspective, this review is an opportunity to think about the role of law in this area of healthcare. As Dr. Henchion outlined, the fact the 2018 Act is a criminal statute means it sits in the consultation room between a patient and a doctor in a very negative way. It hangs over consultations as a ticking clock. Further along, when one looks at cases of foetal anomaly or risk to health, the potential criminalisation hangs over medical practitioners. The law should function as an enabling tool, a tool that provides the framework that articulates the rights of people who are entitled to access care and the duties on the State to provide and organise services in a manner whereby they are accessible to all.