Ms Alison Spillane:

I will respond quickly to the Senator's comment about telemedicine, which has been a really positive innovation in abortion care since the establishment of services. Dr. Henchion might want to speak to our day-to-day experience of delivering it, but I want to mention that early on in the introduction of telemedicine, we sought feedback from our clients because it was a new mode of service delivery. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive that women like accessing care in this manner. They identified several general advantages and very few or no disadvantages to accessing care. For many women, it means that it minimises the burden of having to take time off work or education. Certainly, at the time this research was conducted in summer 2020, many people also reported that it minimised the risks associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, as one would expect. Women felt it enabled them to access care sooner. Others cited that they felt it gave them more privacy and reduced burdens in terms of arranging childcare. The provision of abortion by telemedicine is supported by really strong international evidence. Really importantly, that evidence base has increased during the pandemic thanks to a major study coming out of England and Wales. It is working well from our experience. It is a positive enhancement of abortion care and should certainly be retained into the long term.