Dr Aoife Mullaly

Well, I suppose most importantly, this was one of the recommendations from the review carried out in 2023 by Marie O'Shea.

And the WHO also explicitly recommend against waiting periods for abortion.

They feel that they're medically unnecessary and they do serve as a barrier for women.

So I think from the woman's point of view, they will no longer have to have two consultations before they can go ahead with the abortion.

So that's as it stands at the moment.

There is visit one, which is usually with a GP or a doctor in a family planning clinic setting or sometimes in hospital.

The woman then has to go away for three days and come back for visit two to either take her medication or have a surgical procedure.

So you can see how that might be cumbersome and difficult for lots of women, particularly women who are living very rurally, where they have to travel to see the abortion care provider regularly.

For women that are in difficult social situations, if they're in abusive or coercive relationships, it's obviously much more difficult to get two visits.

And for women who present close to the gestational limit.

So if you are a woman and you present at 11 weeks and five days to your GP, by the time your three-day wait is done, you'll actually have exceeded the gestational limit, which is 12 weeks and zero days, and may then be in a position where you have to travel.

So I think fundamentally, medically, this is a good thing that the three day wait may no longer be part of the process.

I mean, I know where those figures came from.

And yes, he is correct in that 10,000 women did not proceed with visit two, however, with their own doctor.

However, some of those women may have, some of them may have changed their mind.

Some of them may have been over the gestational limit.

They're not able to proceed with the termination here.

Some of them may have gone to a second visit in the hospital.

Some of those women may have suffered pregnancy loss.

So there is no evidence that 10,000 women changed their mind because of the three-day waiting period.