Abortion provision in Ireland: Implementation and advocacy, an Irish and international perspective from practice

Dr Mary Favier is a General Practitioner [GP] with longstanding history of advocacy for abortion care in Ireland. Following Repeal, GPs committed to realising abortion care came together to design a model for medication abortion provision through Primary 1 care in Ireland. The group presented this model of care design to the Department of Health who agreed that the model was a good fit for implementing abortion provision in Ireland following Repeal. To this extent, the model of abortion care could be considered as co-designed. With the help of international collaborators, supporting resources and infrastructure were developed organically. In this interview, the role of Primary Care in the ongoing management and governance infrastructure of the service is highlighted, and it is argued that despite providing the majority of abortion care in Ireland, representation of GPs has been sidelined.