Letter to Minister Stephen Donnelly to retain remote consultations for abortion services

Published: Wednesday, July 29, 2020

In a letter to Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, NWC and a number of organisations requested that the current system of remote access to early abortion care is maintained for the future. Reports from women and pregnant people using the service and from providers indicate that this form of consultation, introduced during the pandemic, has worked well(1). As Ireland reopens, but we continue to live and provide healthcare alongside COVID-19, NWC believe the optimum approach would be to offer both face-to-face and remote consultations, with remote consultation available where it is the woman’s and pregnant person’s preference and clinically appropriate.

Read the full letter here. 

(1) A. Mullaly, T. Horgan, M. Thompson, C. Conlon, B. Dempsey, M.F. Higgins, Working in the shadows, under the spotlight – Reflections on lessons learnt in the Republic of Ireland after the first 18 months of more liberal Abortion Care, Contraception (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception. 2020.07.003