Dr. Bela Ganatra:

Our research and estimates are not broken down by country but rather by region. We do not have specific data for Ireland; we only have data for the region in which it sits. Unfortunately, one of the limitations of the research is the fact that Irish women who travel to the United Kingdom are masked within the sub-regional estimates. The issues specifically related to travelling do not show up in the sub-regional estimates.

On high incidences and safety levels, our information shows that rates of abortion do not vary owing to the degree of restrictiveness of the law. They are similar across the world and regions, despite how strict abortion laws are. The statistics also show that the level of safety changes as the restrictiveness of the law increases. Abortions move from being less safe, in terms of the option of using medication without appropriate information under certain conditions, in particular within the developing world, to the least safe. I would not say Ireland is immune from this based on the data from Dr. Aiken which suggested methods we considered to be the least safe were being used here.

The contrast in this picture is that in countries which have facilitative abortion laws there is often good access to contraception, overall good levels of development and gender equality, thus creating a climate within which women can access good contraception. As a result the rates of unintended pregnancies and abortion are low. When women are faced with a situation where they need an abortion, they can have one safely.

We can have a situation where both low rates and high safety coexist and that, in fact, is the case in northern and western Europe.