The report, entitled Accessing Abortion in Ireland: Meeting the Needs of Every Woman , details the multiple barriers to abortion services that still exist in Ireland, three years after the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment.
The NWC is calling for improved abortion care for women and pregnant people ahead of the government s scheduled review of such services.
Previous research has shown that at least one patient a day is still traveling to the UK for abortion services not available in Ireland, with the majority of these being later term abortions.
Ireland currently allows for the termination of pregnancies under 12 weeks gestation (with cases of foetal abnormalities of those which pose a risk the the health of the mother allowing for later abortions), however the report suggests that there remain extra challenges for those seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
No person has faced criminal charges for getting an abortion or providing the means to terminate a pregnancy in Malta in the last five years.
Between 2015 and 2020, the police investigated three people for alleged abortions, none of whom were arraigned, they told Times of Malta.
Since the year 2000 only three women have been convicted of having an abortion.
In 2006, a 23-year-old Maltese woman was sentenced to three years’ probation.
The other two sentences happened in 2014, where one 30-year-old woman received two years’ jail, suspended for four years and another 28-year-old woman was sentenced to 18 months, suspended for two years.
It is estimated that some 400 Maltese women travel overseas to have an abortion and another 200 purchase abortion pills online every year.
Hannah and her partner have just had a disastrous meeting with the obstetrician. Hannah knows that her pregnancy is not viable and, tortuously, decides that she cannot give birth to a dead baby. The next morning she tells her doctor she wants a termination. He stares at her and says, “well you know that’s not going to happen … not in this hospital”.
This is a scene from Three Families – a two-part BBC series set in 2013, which focuses on Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion policies. Told through the stories of three women, the show highlights a cold truth running through the history of UK abortion rights: that Northern Irish women have been, and continue to be largely excluded from access.
In addition to fewer flights operating and difficulties in accessing hotel accommodation during the pandemic, a lack of clarity on rules about PCR tests for women travelling for abortions is making arranging the journey âalmost impossible to navigateâ, ASN director Mara Clarke said.
âWe have asked for clarity repeatedly, and put in questions to the Department of Health through doctors in Ireland and they repeatedly donât provide it. We need clarity, both for the women and the airlines.
âIt means women lose the money theyâve spent on airline tickets, lose their clinic appointments, need to spend hundreds on Covid tests and, in some cases, are pushed into higher gestations which mean more expensive abortions.â