Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 11 October 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution

International Developments in the Provision of Health Care Services in the Area of Termination of Pregnancies: Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and World Health Organization

1:00 pm

Dr. Bela Ganatra:

If one looks at the graph, it shows how abortion rates have consistently declined in Europe between 1990 and 2014, and the majority of the countries have abortion laws that are fairly liberal. To address the concern about the misrepresentation of information and the setting-up of services, the key point would be to have national standards and guidelines which lay out clearly what the responsibilities are, how services should be delivered, how the legal grounds need to be interpreted and what are the medical standards.