Listen to women. Trust women. Women must be heard. These slogans were the cornerstone of the 2018 Repeal campaign.

Yet powerful people seem unwilling to listen to one group of women – those who had an initial consultation for an abortion but decided to keep their babies during the mandatory three-day wait.

Marie O’Shea, who conducted the abortion legislation three-year review, carried out qualitative interviews with three women who chose abortion; six abortion-providing GPs, 16 hospital providers, and nine senior HSE/Department of Health officials. She also attended the Southern Taskforce for Abortion and Reproductive Topics annual conference, then representing 300 abortion providers.

But she did not conduct even one interview with a woman who did not proceed to abortion. Nor did she include an examination of HSE Primary Care Reimbursement Service figures obtained by Carol Nolan TD, which indicate that between 17 and 19 per cent of women do not return after a first consultation every year.

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O’Shea still........

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