The impact of local telemedicine provision on the need for online abortion services in Ireland

Abortion has been legal in Ireland since 2019 and the telemedicine abortion services were introduced in April 2020, soon after the pandemic had started. This study looks at the patterns in and reasons for seeking and receiving online telemedicine abortion services outside the formal healthcare setting after the legalization of abortions and the introduction of telemedicine abortion services.

Requests from Ireland to the Women on Web’s online abortion service reduced in the second year of legal access to abortions. Increasing awareness of abortion services, particularly access pathways, free costs and confidentiality, promoting normalization and retaining local telemedicine services can further reduce reliance on online telemedicine.

The full study is available here.