Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This three-day rule presents practical difficulties to the women, which have been outlined by other Deputies, but it also presents practical difficulties for the doctor. When we had a hearing on guidelines in September, the experts who gave evidence could not present any international evidence on why there should be a three-day waiting period. When the Minister is responding, he might outline what he feels the purpose of that three-day period is, because there does not seem to be any medical evidence to support it.

The other practical difficulty is the question of when it starts and when it finishes. I know the Minister has mentioned that it may be that six o'clock on a Monday evening and nine o'clock on a Wednesday morning would fulfil the three-day period, but that also presents practical difficulties, because how will that actually be monitored?

The Minister must also understand what happens in a consultation. When a woman presents to a GP to discuss an issue such as this, a substantial discussion and consultation are carried out. It is not something that happens in the space of two or three minutes and it is quite often a prolonged consultation. That is an important point because if it is being suggested that the waiting period starts when a phone call is made or a text sent to a practice, that is not practical because it calls confidentiality into issue. Who is the woman sending the text to or leaving the message with? She might be leaving the message with a secretary and what is being discussed is confidential information which cannot be discussed with non-medical personnel. Those are the practical difficulties of it but the issue of confidentiality is also so important. If there is to be a waiting period, the starting period needs to be a conversation with the doctor who will be in charge of providing the termination. It should be a consultation and not purely a conversation with a member of staff or a text.

Within the medical profession, there is the well known concept of a deferred prescription. For example, if a woman comes in and wishes to have a termination and the doctor is happy that everything can be certified, the doctor can issue a deferred prescription and tell the woman that if she is not sure or if there is any uncertainty about it, she does not have to cash the prescription in today or tomorrow, but that she has that prescription, she can use it at her discretion and she should contact the practice if she is going to defer it for a period of time. There does not have to be an instantaneous decision making process.

Perhaps the Minister will expand on the purpose of the three-day rule but there is much discretion within the consultation on when the taking of the medication is triggered. It is not a one for all decision that has to be made right on the spot.

The three-day rule has no international evidence to back it up. It presents a barrier to the woman and to the doctor and it interferes with the process of what we are trying to do, which is to deliver a safe and timely termination.

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