Time for a grown-up abortion debate
Pro-choice and pro-life campaigners have been ramping up their campaigns lately. But there’s no use in Ireland burying its collective head in the sand any longer. With women continuing to travel abroad for terminations, the time has come for the status quo to be challenged.
Adrienne Murphy, 05 Oct 2012
Women on Web continues to help women from the Republic of Ireland and N. Ireland to have a safe abortion with medicines. The IMB has publicly stated that they have stopped hundreds of packages sent by internet providers to the Republic in the last two years. The packages that were stopped in the last two years are not from WoW, so other internet providers are shipping to Ireland. We do not know the quality of those medicines or if women are being scammed as they seek options to end an unwanted pregnancy.
We are sorry, we are not available for interviews.
Warm regards, Women on Web
I spoke to and then emailed the Dublin PR company that handles press queries for the IMB, sending in both my questions to WoW and WoW’s response. I received a long and rather confusing response. However it did say the following:
The IMB strongly recommends that a woman should not seek to obtain or self-medicate with such potent medicines. Any woman experiencing anxiety regarding a pregnancy should consult with her doctor or contact the Crisis Pregnancy Unit of the HSE.
The IMB, in conjunction with the Revenue’s Customs Service, continually monitors and investigates instances of illegal supply of prescription only medicinal products via the internet and actively enforces against suspected breaches of the law. On detection of an abortifacient medicinal product on importation the Revenue Customs Division detains the consignment at the point of importation inspection.
When a package containing an abortifacient or other prescription only medicinal product is detained on importation, the IMB makes contact with the consignee to advise on the medicinal status of the product and of the legal position regarding supply.
There were a total of 1,216 tablets intercepted in 62 individual importations during 2009 and 671 tablets intercepted in 40 importations in 2010. Figures for 2011 have not yet been published.
Attached to the IMB’s email was a brochure entitled, ‘The Dangers of Buying Medicines Online’.
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Adrienne Murphy
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