Dr. Caitriona Henchion:

Undoubtedly women give the decision an awful lot of thought. It is not only women, however. Quite often families are involved in the decision, women and their partners, and they take into account issues relating to their children. I have spoken to women who, very regretfully, decided to have an abortion because they already had two children with special needs and simply would not have been able to look after them properly if they continued with another pregnancy. I have come across women who have made their decisions with great difficulty, but after giving them a great amount of thought. They may feel, for example, that there is a very high risk of a problem occurring with their pregnancies by virtue of their age. In every case, the women have considered the decision. They have argued for and against it in their heads for quite a long time before making it.

The other issue is that so many of these women are not using contraception properly or not using reliable contraception at the time they become pregnant. Quite separately from women who have had a crisis pregnancy or an abortion, I meet many women for emergency contraception or contraception consultations. Sometimes I meet women for consultations that are totally unrelated to contraception and when I ask them what contraception they are using, they tell me that they are not using any even though they are of reproductive age. The issue of why women are not using contraception or not using effective contraception is a huge issue which needs to be addressed. I have given some of the possible reasons for that.

This is not just to do with teenagers and young women. This is to do with women of all ages having misconceptions about their fertility or simply taking chances, putting off issues of contraception and not doing anything about it. We really need to address that. It would be far better to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and crisis pregnancies rather than having to have an increased number of abortions.