Dr. Caitriona Henchion:

One of the first things one has to do for a health measure to be widely adopted is to get rid of cost. That is what we do with vaccination programmes. One could point out that if people valued it enough they would still get it but if one wants everybody to do so, one must get rid of the cost. That is what is done for public health issues. If we want to tackle the issue of crisis pregnancy, contraception and sexual health education has to be looked at as a public health issue and money must be taken out of the equation in order that it cannot be a factor.

It is not enough to only take out the cost of contraception. One needs to make people aware of the issues involved or they will not access contraceptive services in the first place. That definitely links in to socioeconomic factors because, as I said, a girl who leaves school early may have missed out on contraceptive education at school because it might have been delivered too late. A girl who does not attend school very frequently may not have received that education. We need to address that issue and ensure we are looking at it as a public health measure.

There are many reasons why women do not come for post-abortion care. It is a difficult question to answer because if they do not attend, I do not see them and, therefore, cannot answer completely for those who do not come. Some women come to the IFPA and are very anxious about doing so. They are anxious that they may have a complication or about being judged and the attitudes that people might have towards them and are at pains to try to justify their decision because they think others might feel abortion is only okay for some people. Those are reasons that people might not want to come. Because many women do not see a health care provider before they have an abortion, in order to do so afterwards they have to again find out where that service is and then go and tell their story all over again to a new person and that is a difficulty. If they were going back to the place where they had the abortion, that would not be a deterrent. Those are some of the reasons women do not attend for care.

The risk to a woman's life as a result of an illegal abortion using online medication is exceptionally low but that is not to say that women using such medication have a good health care experience. There may be minor or low-level risks such as not getting their contraception or enduring a procedure that is painful, uncomfortable and frightening while being alone with absolutely no support and nowhere to which to turn and being worried that if something goes wrong they will be found out rather than get help. Those are examples of safety issues in terms of illegal abortion.