The Oireachtas Committee on the Eight Amendment heard that the availability of free contraception in the Republic of Ireland was “doable”, according to Senator Catherine Noone, basing her opinion on evidence put forward on the proposal on Thursday.
Chief medical officer at the Department of Health Dr. Tony Holohan was asked by Noone whether the supply of free contraception was feasible. Holohan commented that "in broad terms, it would not be expensive".
Representatives of the department and the HSE appeared before the committee yesterday afternoon.
Dr Holohan said that medicines used in abortion abroad were already available “for other purposes” in Ireland.
Dr Peter McKenna, clinical director of the National Women and Infant’s Health Programme and former master at Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital said one such medicine “is used routinely in obstetric situations already”. He also mentioned that the cost of such medicines had “tumbled” to roughly a third of what they once were.
Independent4Change TD Clare Daly noted that “over 80 per cent of abortions are by pills”.
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Dr Holohan told the committee that abortion by medical means could be delivered in by the 2,500 GPs in the State. However “surgical terminations would have to be resourced” to help avoid “impact on other gynaecological services”.
He argued Ireland needed 100 more consultants in obstetrics, to add to the 120 existing positions, in order to bring care in the area up to international standards.
H/T: Irish Times
