Dr. Catherine Conlon:

I was the principal investigator, PI, of the services users strand. The Department of Health designated the UnPAC study, the service users strand of the legislative review, after that research was well under way. It was not commissioned as part of the review, as Dr. Duffy was. The HSE had begun our research in December 2019. In April 2021, the Department of Health designated it the service users strand of the research. One of the reasons was because of the rigour and the extensive nature of that research. We began the research in December 2019, under terms of reference by the HSE. We undertook research recruiting people for the study in 35 general practitioner sites, two hospital sites, two women's health clinic sites, and through the organisation of Termination for Medical Reasons group and BPAS UK. We engaged with more than 60 GPs. We invited all GPs on the list, providing abortion, through the contracts office, to take part in the study. We did extensive work on trying to access people. It took time. We went back to the HSE and it extended our timeframe. We talk about recruiting people for the study. It is a very lengthy and sensitive process to engage people in research like this.

We ultimately engaged 46 people in this study. When we look at international peer review, it is a much more extensive research with abortion service users. We did qualitative interviews that lasted one hour and upwards. We have more than 60 hours of data with people who have accessed care under section 12. In addition, we have 12 interviews of more than 20 hours of data with people who have accessed care under section 11.

We would say we have made extensive efforts to consult with service users on this research. There is no more rigorous methodology. It has been peer reviewed extensively. The rigour of our methodology has been held up by academic peer review as well as peer review by the HSE.