Professor Veronica O'Keane:

There are no such comparable studies. Apart from very small states in Europe, Ireland is the only substantive state that does not have legal abortion services available. It is impossible to discern what the outcome of an unwanted pregnancy would be in Ireland because there is no access to abortion here. The study is a little strange. It is difficult to apply such studies to Ireland because unwanted pregnancies were examined but there was quite a bit of ambivalence in terms of the unwanted pregnancies as some of the women who had unwanted pregnancies had abortions while others had unwanted pregnancies but did not have abortions. Those were the two groups analysed in the study. In a place where there is no access to abortion, the quality of unwanted pregnancies will be different because one could not say who from a group of women with unwanted pregnancies would have gone on to have an abortion had it been available. It is not possible to do the study in an area that does not have abortion. That is my point. I am sorry if it was a bit obtuse.