Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 19 September 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Clinical Guidelines for the Introduction of Abortion Services: Discussion

9:00 am

Dr. John O'Brien:

Apropos the business of the evidence, in so far as we can establish, there may be some instances of harm from a three-day wait. The Senator's point about evidence was well made. In terms of what we accept as evidence, much of the evidence that we might look at is not pertinent to the facts on the ground straight in front of a person. All that I can tell the Senator is that we have not found compelling evidence of benefit. We just have not found it. We have engaged with our members, most specifically, to ask them to also provide us with evidence that we have not found. That has been part of the dialogue.

The Senator asked whether we asked a specific question on a three-day wait. We did not ask a specific question on that aspect but we have allowed space within the consultation process for people to bring forward, in a non-directive way, issues that are pertinent and of concern to them. Did the Senator ask something else?