Travel for abortion access continues - 244 contacts to help line were past 12 weeks

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Despite a landslide vote to Repeal the 8th amendment, women are still being forced to travel for abortions. The Health Service Executive revealed today that 244 women who had passed the 12-week limit for an abortion had called their helpline. The 12 week deadline is an extremely restrictive deadline. Due to a national shortage of GPs many women have to wait up to a week to get appointments. Parts of rural Ireland still do not have GP coverage.

They also reported that 100 children called the helpline - a shocking number - but underlining that we are still failing to protect children from sexual abuse.

The HSE data is worrying. Those in power remain much more conservative than the general population. They had to be forced by popular pressure to allow a referendum. We will have to keep fighting to stop them from rolling back on what little rights they have given us.