Ms Leah Hoctor:

Let me follow on from that point. We saw from Dr. Sedgh's slides as well that some of the lowest rates of abortion in the world are in the western European countries that we looked at in our map that would have access to abortion on request. I am living in Switzerland at present and that was the country with the lowest incidence of abortion on the slide.

What we can see from those data is that there is no correlation between the availability of abortion on request, in early pregnancy, for example, in the law, and a higher rate of abortion. In fact, WHO evidence indicates that once the law is changed, unsafe abortions then become safe. In the Irish context, this would mean women who are travelling outside the State for abortion care would, in most cases, no longer do so, and women who take an abortion pill in a clandestine manner would be within the law. Abortions had by Irish women outside the State would happen here.

I was asked about constitutions. The Irish approach, involving the regulation of abortion starting with a constitutional provision, is very rare across the world. In Europe, there is, I believe, only one other country in this category, Andorra. I do not have exact numbers but I believe Andorra has a complete ban on abortion. That protects the right to life before birth. It applies prenatally. Beyond Ireland and Andorra, it is virtually unheard of in Europe to include abortion within a constitutional provision. Some countries in Latin America, such as Chile and Honduras, and in Africa have constitutional provisions that address the right to life and whether it applies before birth. It applies prenatally in those countries. All these countries have highly restrictive abortion laws. Since Ireland, being in western Europe, is a country whose socioeconomic status is higher than that of Chile, Irish women can leave to gain access to safe abortion services in another country. In Latin America and Africa, however, we see, as a result of the very restrictive laws and constitutional provisions, there are very high rates of unsafe abortion.