Ireland has introduced its first abortion services today following a 2018 referendum decision to liberalise the country's ban on terminating pregnancies.

Laws were quickly passed following the referendum to ensure that as of midnight on Tuesday, the country's national health service was able to offer terminations free of charge.

But onlookers on both sides of the debate have expressed apprehension about the country's preparations to roll out the service through the Health Service Executive (HSE) - the Republic of Ireland's NHS.

Even health minister Simon Harris acknowledged that, while "this is a very significant day for women's healthcare" it would take time to "fully evolve and fully embed" the services within the state healthcare system.

Just over 66% of the electorate voted to repeal a controversial amendment in the Irish constitution which made abortion illegal except in certain extremely limited circumstances.


Mr Harris said the government estimated that 80% of terminations were likely to take place in local communities and he was satisfied that the 165 GPs who voluntarily signed up to provide the service was enough to meet demand.

"When a women picks up the phone and looks for her options there will be many, many locations across the country where [she] can access this service," he said.

Vote means 'burden of shame' now gone

Clare Murphy, a spokesperson for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which helped roughly 3,000 women travel from Ireland to Britain annually to obtain abortions, told The Guardian: "That number will definitely drop, without a doubt."

However Ms Murphy warned that the requirement of a three-day "cooling off" period for women requesting abortions was there to placate pro-life activists and not based on medical evidence.

She added that women seeking abortions after 12 weeks faced uncertainty, saying: "We expect there will be a significant cohort of women who won't be catered for."

According to the HSE, the delay period is there to ensure that patients are no more than 12 weeks pregnant, and, it tells potential patients, "can give you time to decide for sure if you want to go ahead with the abortion".

Dr Peter Boylan, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist working with HSE, said: "Our health service is ready to provide abortion services to people who need it.

"Clinical guidance and training has been provided and circulated to healthcare teams nationwide to assist practitioners in the clinical decision making involved in providing abortion care."

He added: "A lot of work has been done by people across our health service to prepare for this new service, with a sufficient number of GPs signed up and others continuing to do so.

"Services will be provided in GP practices and family planning services, and maternity units and hospitals across the country."