Dr. Meabh Ní Bhuinneáin:

The delays in accessing termination services contribute to significant morbidity. Health, in its widest sense, is not just the absence of disease. The woman does not have to have a complication as a result of this delay. The issue is the physical, psychological and social well-being she no longer has during this delay. The delays are not just because she has to travel to another jurisdiction. As a result of the current stigmatisation of openly seeking termination services and because of the concern about host responsiveness, her decision-making is often delayed in the very beginning. That is the first delay. The second delay is when she gets into a track where she is receiving some degree of advice. Is it impartial? Is it coming from an informal system? Is it coming from systems that are driven for missionary or fiscal reasons or is it coming from an open, objective and balanced system? The third delay is in actually accessing the care when she gets there. We are starting to see, as the Senator is aware from the media, that the host nation does not always have the capacity to meet the needs of these women when they arrive. That national capacity of the UK to continue to provide for us is under re-examination.