The Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) are progressing plans to restore Early Medical Abortions (EMAs) in the Trust area by the end of March, a Western Trust spokesperson confirmed to The Impartial Reporter on Tuesday.

Before the suspension of services, EMAs were carried out in Waterside Health Centre in Londonderry. When The Impartial Reporter queried where EMAs were performed in the Western Trust, a Western Trust spokesperson said: “Previously, EMAs were carried out in Waterside Health Centre, Londonderry.

"Locations of EMAs services, going forward, are to be determined,” said the spokesperson, which may indicate that EMAs could occur at other locations in The Trust.

EMAs were suspended by the Western Trust in April, 2021, with a release at the time of suspension saying: "The Trust requires additional nursing and medical support in order to deliver this service and are actively exploring all options in respect of this.”

The Impartial Reporter queried if the Trust are actively recruiting specialists in Sexual and Reproductive Health.

In response, a Trust spokesperson said: “There are staff in [the] post for sexual and reproductive health and, going forward, we are linking as a region to address how best to provide an EMA service.”

Another issue known to be affecting reproductive health services in the Trust is a long waiting list for contraception services.

A Western Trust spokesperson said: "The current waiting list for contraception service is 12 -14 weeks."

At the time of the suspension, almost nine months ago, the Trust referred to the suspension as "a temporarily pause” on the delivery of the EMAs service.

When asked by this paper what people seeking EMAs should do if they live in the Western Trust area, a Trust spokesperson said: “Those wishing to seek an EMA who live in the Western Trust area are advised to consult the Western Trust website.”

The website details: “The Western Trust suspended their early medical abortion service in April, 2021. As abortion services have not been commissioned in Northern Ireland, all Trusts have a lack of resources, at present. Therefore, they will not accept referrals from people living outside of their Trust area.”

The Western Trust website lists areas affected by this suspension, and then lists options for EMAs in England and Ireland.

New data released last Thursday, January 20 revealed that in 2020/21, there wre 63 terminations of pregnancy undertaken in HSC hospitals in Northern Ireland within the period – 41more than in the previous year, according to data released from The Department of Health for the period, April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021.

Some 41 of these terminations were undertaken by women added 30+; 12 by women aged 25-29; and 10 terminations by those aged 24 and under.

The data noted 16 terminations were carried out in the Western Trust in 2020/21.

In 2020, the NHS in England and Wales carried out 365 funded terminations on women from Northern Ireland; six privately-funded terminations were carried out on women from Northern Ireland in the same period.

As previously reported in this newspaper in November, 2020, the charity Informing Choices NI – that operated the central access point for abortion access in Northern Ireland – stated that some 96 women from Fermanagh and South Tyrone sought information on abortion from April 15, 2020 to April 14, 2021.