Ms Marie O'Shea:

The WHO abortion guidance, which is evidence based, recommends that the service providers can be expanded beyond medical practitioners. They include nurses, midwives and even pharmacists in a community setting if they have the appropriate training. We already know through My Options that it is nurses who provide the 24-hour helpline after termination of pregnancy. Midwives and nurses can also be upskilled to provide sonography services. When talking about a medical abortion, we are talking about mifepristone, which is a tablet that is a buccal swab into the cheek of the mouth, followed by the administration of more medication. Certainly, it could be done under the supervision of a medical practitioner. We should not have to have a situation like we have now, where a consultant obstetrician has to come and provide that mifepristone to somebody. The vast majority of termination of pregnancy in Ireland under all sections of the Act are medical terminations and the inducement of-----