Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh míle maith agat agus cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I welcome the Minister of State although it has to be said that the issue I am raising today has nothing to do with international road transport and logistics or with postal policy and Eircodes. That is not to take from the Minister of State's very fine contribution as a politician and as a Minister pf State. However, I requested that we postpone this until such time as there was a Minister from the actual Department dealing with the matter available but yet again the Seanad is not being treated with the respect that it deserves by the Government. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State or to her commitment or indeed interest in the issue I am raising.

The concern I am raising today is about the remote consultation or so-called telemedicine abortion and specifically the suggestion that it will soon become permanent. It was reported in The Irish Timesin an article of 12 November that the Government intends to make remote consultation and at home abortion a permanent fixture of Irish abortion policy. We have been living with this policy since April 2020 when it was first introduced as a response of the outbreak of Covid-19. However, the suggestion that telemedicine should now become a permanent feature of Irish abortion law is very serious. This is a radical change to the operation of the law, particularly in contrast to how it was envisioned when the Bill was drafted. When the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 was being drafted, the then Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, assured members of the health committee that under the law, women would be seen physically for consultations and that absolutely termination of pregnancy services in Ireland would not be done by telemedicine. That was stated at a meeting of the health committee on 6 November 2018.

In a letter from March 2021, the Secretary General of the Department of Health confirmed that once the pandemic ended, temporary telemedicine provisions in relation to abortion would lapse. Unfortunately, when most Covid regulations were lifted at the start of this year, the policy of remote consultations continued. This was despite the absence of an independent investigation or study into the operation of telemedicine abortion in this country. Indeed, the HSE acknowledged that it is wholly reliant on secondary literature from Britain.

If the Government intends to make this radical change to Ireland's abortion law, surely it should be done in a transparent and open way by bringing forth amending legislation to the current abortion Act to explicitly provide for terminations by remote consultation. At least then there would be an opportunity for parliamentarians to scrutinise proposals, highlighting some of the issues that have already been raised in this Chamber by Senator Sharon Keogan and me. There are many concerns about safeguarding and physical risk to women's health associated with telemedicine abortion.

The HSE acknowledged in a letter of 3 March 2022 that meeting the woman in person increases the likelihood of the provider being able to identify any coercion or domestic abuse. With remote consultations it is more likely that the most vulnerable women will fall through the cracks. Removing in-built safeguards like a physical consultation and the privacy afforded by a GP surgery is sheer recklessness. As was reported in the Irish Examiner on 24 October, a teenage Irish girl was locked in a room and given abortion tablets in order to force a termination. That is not an isolated incident. A recent Savanta ComRes poll in the UK found that 15% of women aged between 18 and 44 said they experienced pressure to go through with an abortion that they did not want. Telemedicine enables coercive abortion and makes it more difficult to help the women who desperately need help.

The Government's first priority should be protecting women in abusive relationships and the victims of human trafficking. In the light of these developments, one would have to wonder about that and about the Government's priorities.