Dr. Rhona Mahony:

Just to follow that, if I am correct, and I ask the Senator to please correct me if I am wrong, I think we are getting at the termination of pregnancies under 12 weeks when that is a woman's choice, there is no qualification required and it involves a woman who says she does not want to continue the pregnancy. That is a service we provide at the moment under the current legislation. The vast majority of terminations in those cases are provided in the community. That is where the majority of terminations take place at less than nine weeks. After nine weeks, we perform these terminations in Holles Street either using medication or using a surgical technique, just because the pregnancy has advanced a bit more and there are more risks of bleeding. We feel, therefore, that it is safer to perform those procedures in the hospital. We do not do that many, actually, because the majority of the cases happen in the community, which is totally appropriate. It is where women can be at home instead of having to come into a hospital.

If we look at the experience in Scotland, what we found there was as that service developed and improved, far fewer cases came to hospital because those terminations were being given earlier in the pregnancy when it is safer. That has been the experience in Scotland and we certainly hope we will follow that. Even in Holles Street today, we do not perform many procedures under 12 weeks because most are done in the community. The point about this is that under the legislation, terminations under 12 weeks could be performed in St. Vincent's hospital. There is no barrier in St Vincent's to performing everything but we have to rationalise services. At the moment, as regards the kinds of services provided in St. Vincent's hospital, it should be remembered that the hospital has not moved yet so we do all of the routine and normal work, including all of the caesarean sections.

We do approximately two caesarean sections at St. Vincent's per year because we need additional medical backup. We must remember the hospital has not moved yet. There is no barrier at St. Vincent's to doing that. It is just that with the cases at St. Vincent's now, there is a limited gynaecological service and it is generally devoted to cancer. We are not going to cancel a cancer patient just to make a political point that we can do a termination at less than 12 weeks gestation. It would be totally inappropriate.