Dr. Caitriona Henchion:

It is always difficult to find out about that because if they are successful, we do not see those people. That is one problem with trying to gather those data. We certainly have encountered people who have attended agencies they thought were abortion-providing agencies. They have been brought in for medical appointments, had scans and been told various information about their scans but have been provided with no reports. It is only over time that they have realised that actually, nothing was going to happen and no progress was being made. When they tried to get any of that medical information in order to transfer their care elsewhere, they have not had any assistance with that. Depending on when we end up seeing them, we might say that gestationally they require a scan, and those details could quite easily be at odds with the report they were given earlier. It is definitely an issue we come across, although not very often. Luckily, women are quite clued in to the issue and recognise the signs that something is not right earlier than they might have in the past, when there was so much secrecy. We tend to see them on time, therefore, although it is difficult to know because if they are not on time, we may not see them at all.