Dr. Gilda Sedgh:

I appreciate the Deputy bringing up our relationship with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, PPFA. That is on our website, the information is available and I am happy to make it available here. When the institute was founded in 1968, we were housed in the corporate structure of PPFA. In 1977 we became an independent organisation with an independent board of directors and our affiliation with PPFA was eventually dissolved.

I am familiar with estimates or assumptions about how many abortions have been averted by virtue of restrictive abortion law in Ireland. I think the assumptions on which those numbers are based are dubious. I could get into that if one wanted me to.