Ms Janice Donlon:

Where a client has taken an abortion pill, the primary concern of the counsellor is the care of the client.

It involves the client being assured that if she is having a medical problem, she can attend a hospital or GP service. If she is having a complication after taking the abortion pill, she is encouraged to attend the service and to tell someone she has taken the abortion pill and not hide it and try to pretend she has had a miscarriage or anything else. Disclosing that she has taken the abortion pill would certainly be encouraged by the counsellors, who, through the services we fund, would have received training, support and guidance in this area. It is an incredibly difficult area. It is a difficult area for the client and it is also an incredibly difficult area for the counsellor in terms of the legislation and the potential penalties for both. The priority is that the client is not fearful of attending a medical service should she have a complication or of attending a counselling service should she need that support.

The Deputy is probably referencing the abortion aftercare leaflets that are available in British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS, clinics. We have a relationship in terms of sending our information to abortion clinics in the UK and the Netherlands. The reason we do that is because we want Irish women who attend these services and have an abortion to be aware of the State-funded services that are available to them on their return so I think it is entirely appropriate that the HSE would send our materials to these services, which we know women attend. We gather the data on an annual basis from the Netherlands and the UK and we know women are attending these services so we highlight to women that they can attend free counselling and access a free post-abortion medical check up and we will continue to do so.