Dr. Patricia Lohr:

The second comment related to the Care Quality Commission report about one of our clinics. The Senator characterised it as a reprimand. All health care organisations have opportunities to learn from mistakes. Complications happen and learning must happen afterwards. What was identified in the Care Quality Commission report, as had already been identified internally at BPAS through serious incident investigations and learning that followed, was that we did need to do better at that clinic. However, that will be found in any regulated and inspected health care environment. If anything, it supports the idea that abortion, like any other medical procedure when regulated, has the opportunity to improve and better provide services.

I believe the Senator was trying to say that the fact that we had had this report meant it should not be used as a justification that abortion may be provided safely out of hospital and at home. It is probably better to turn to published studies on the locations where abortions can be safely provided.

We know from a number of publications that, for example, early medical abortion and vacuum aspiration can be safely provided from clinic-based settings. A number of studies have demonstrated that medical abortion can safely occur in the home environment.

There was a comment about an assumption of the abortion rate in Ireland and a connection was drawn between the abortion rate I cited in the UK. The Senator asked whether I thought three times as many women were travelling to the Netherlands. Have I paraphrased that correctly?