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All GPs would regard the need to terminate a pregnancy as a failure of family planning.
IT’S ESTIMATED THAT around 1,500 abortion pills are used on the island of Ireland each year, or around 5 pills a day.
That figure is based on a study conducted on women in Northern Ireland and the Republic, the number of seizures of abortion pills, and the number of pills ordered by women from online providers.
In the same survey, of the 1,000 women on the island of Ireland who bought abortion pills online, around 10% reported experiencing side effects after taking the medication.
(To be clear, these are pills that are illegal in Ireland because of our abortion laws, but are considered medically safe. One of the pills, misoprostol is listed on the World Health Organisation’s list of Essential Medicines.)
In that same group, 0.7% required a blood transfusion, 2.6% required antibiotics, and overall 9.3% experienced symptoms potentially requiring medical attention. There were no deaths.
In cases where women have taken abortion pills to end their pregnancy and experience side effects, there’s a danger that they will be slow to report those problems.
In its submission to the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment, the Irish College of General Practitioners, the organisation said:
The ICGP understands that an increasing proportion of women will purchase online hormonal abortifacient medications.
In these instances, it may or may not become known to their GP in subsequent consultations.
“There is clearly increased use of ‘illegal abortifacients’ both from anecdotal evidence from GPs, objective measures such as customs seizures, and a recent paper which suggests that 5,560 women requested abortion pills between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2015.”
It also said that “women who use abortion pills ordered online may fear presenting to
Irish health services if they develop problems”.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, two GPs shared their experiences of treating women who had taken abortion pills, saying that despite the pills being illegal, the process from a medical point of view was straightforward.
“The medical part is simple,” said Dr Brendan O’Shea, who runs a large practice in Co Kildare and has been practicing medicine for 30 years.
“From a medical perspective, [our aim is] to understand what’s happened.
“We do a clinical evaluation of the severity of the pain, check pulse and blood pressure, see if there’s a real active risk of hemorrhage or not, and you do all that in 10 minutes.”
When asked whether it’s easy to evaluate this, as women might underplay symptoms or be reluctant to share them given they’ve taken a medicine that’s illegal in Ireland, Dr O’Shea was clear:
“As a GP, part of our skills set is to deal with uncertainty – we know our patient very well, so we’ve a greater probability of getting relevant details than a hospital’s emergency department.”
Dublin-based GP Dr Mark Murphy said that the abortion pill is “very effective”, so medical intervention after the pill is taken is only needed in “unusual circumstances”.
“For most women it just works and that’s it,” he said.
In cases where there are side effects or complications of some kind, Murphy said that women “may not go to their GP” and instead “might go directly to the emergency department”.
Dr Murphy, who is part of the Together for Yes campaign, says that people are generally comfortable telling their GP about their health concerns because a GP would most likely be familiar with their patients’ medical history.
They’d be more nervous telling a doctor they don’t know. Oftentimes [at an emergency department] they might say they’re miscarrying. That’s clearly not ideal.
Abortion pills can be taken up to 10-12 weeks of the pregnancy, meaning that in the event of a ‘repeal’ vote in the upcoming referendum, the majority of terminations would be carried out through taking a pill.
Although it’s difficult to discern exactly how many abortion pills are ordered online by women in Ireland each year, it’s considered that that number is increasing.
“The number of people travelling to the UK for terminations is in decline, and although this is partly linked to an increase in contraception-use, it’s also linked to an increase in the use of abortion pills in Ireland,” Murphy says.
O’Shea says on the subject of abortion, all GPs would view the need for a pregnancy termination as “a failure of family planning”.
The view that the Eighth Amendment reduces that is simply not the case.
He says that what will reduce the rate of abortions and unplanned pregnancies in the country is more effective messages on contraception.
“The programme of legislation is definitely part of the answer to that question, but this time round we need to be more forward-looking, need to increase family planning services, and remove the remaining barriers, such as cost.”
We seem to be obsessed with legal experts, scientists, gynecologists, hospitals, and are making people take frightful risks with their own sexuality.
This is like the seatbelt issue – we sorted seatbelts when we started to place responsibility on dangerous drivers. Hundreds of thousands engage in sexual activity, you have the service supply but you also need a stronger public service campaign.
In response to the calls for a more robust contraception and sexual education campaign, the Department of Health directed us to a speech by Minister Simon Harris.
In it, he announced that the country’s National Sexual Health Strategy 2015-2020 would be updated based on the recommendations of the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment’s ancillary recommendations.
The three-year programme will include:
He also pledged to increase the distribution of condoms and information about safer sex behaviours.
The government recently announced it would review sexual education at primary and secondary level; and also that it would look at making the morning after pill free of charge (although this ran into complications this week).
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Let’s blame Airbnb for a housing shortage that FG are unwilling and incapable of solving. Reduce capital gain tax and incentivise new developments through tax. Stop the building height restrictions. Half of north Dublin City is in ruin with empty houses all over it.
A few weeks ago he said he wasn’t going regulate it, I think this guy is making it up as he goes along.
Kirk he’s trying to be popular FG leadership coming up ok
A lot of people that rent out rooms etc on Airbnb, do so out of necessity. It provides an income supplement that many people needed during the height of the recession because of the austerity imposed by the government. Of course some people are going to make a fortune out of it, and more luck to them. In my opinion though, regulating Airbnb will only serve as a tax collecting tool, not something that will actually fix the housing crisis. I think their first port of call should be to reduce the tax on rental income that landlords have to pay. This would encourage more people to invest in property, as it would mean the property would pay for itself when rented out!
@pheilum. A lot of people also rent out entire properties on a full-time basis via airbnb. I agree that it won’t fix the housing crisis, but I strongly believe that those renting out full time should be regulated. They should have to apply for planning permission for change of use. After all, the premises is no longer a home. They should pay taxes and they should have to ensure that they meet health and safety standards. A person occasionally renting out a spare room entirely different.
Well if you agree that it won’t fix the housing crisis what is the problem? Btw who said they don’t pay taxes?
Coveney be better off regulating hotel prices in city’s over weekends ?
Only if he wants hotels to go out of business. Hotel prices are the sort of thing that don’t need regulation. If they’re too high, the rooms remain empty. If they’re too low, the hotel runs at a loss. Encouraging the building of more hotels – or the use of houses and apartments as short-term lets – would drive hotel prices down.
Convey, ask Europe what to do. If it suits FG, go for it , If not , ignore em. Ain’t that the FG way ?
Willy FG are a facist party
Regulate, regulate, regulate.
Keep regulating so that any competition to the status quo is abolished.
Keep regulating so that home owners can’t generate a small side income without being hammered with taxes.
Keep regulating so that there is no more innovation.
Keep regulating so that costs to employers are driver up thereby squeezing wages.
Keep regulating, Keep regulating, Keep regulating FFS.
Why isn’t there anyone standing up for property rights? Why is it the individual property owners responsibility to solve the housing crisis caused by government? The little guy paying the bills yet again
I don’t do ab&b but surely it’s a property owner’s responsibility to do what they want with he property they pay for?
Airbnb is responsible for bringing in tourists who spend a lot of €€€€€€€€, thread carefully.
Nanny state strikes again….
The more he interferes with the rental market the more flee from it ..including his beloved large professional landlord firms
The headline makes it sound like he’s looking for a brown envelope. “Satisfactory arrangement”, I wonder what that could mean?
When they say It’s not right, what they really mean is it exposes the government’s failure to adequately implement any real policy to address housing shortages. It has nothing to do with being right and everything to with making the government look incompetent and its housing policy look non-existent.
Airbnb overall increases the supply of accommodation. It has the potential to take an under-utilised resource… a house or apartment which is vacant part of the time or a place someone does not want to let long term and makes it available on the market.
Governments around the world are going to have to get used to a sharing economy and too technology easily, cheaply and efficiently connecting individuals with something to share with someone else that has need.
Why doesn’t he keep his fat nose out of our business?
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