Gardaí were not willing to accept claims by the HSE that abortion exclusion zones were required to ensure a broad rollout of abortion in GP practices across the country, new documents reveal.

The HSE met with Department of Health and Garda officials in May 2019, during which gardaí said new legislation to establish safe access zones around GP practices and hospitals was not required. Instead, it was decided that local superintendents would be written to “advising them to be aware of services and to meet with providers locally to advise them that they can engage with the superintendent if there are any issues”.

HSE officials had a different “perspective” and argued that “the lack of safe access zone legislation was influencing some GPs’ willingness to sign up to provide the service; that the introduction of safe access zones had the potential to increase GP sign up and potentially increase the number of GPs opting to have their details shared via My Options”.

This was in contrast to the view of gardaí, who “indicated that where there is a breach of the law, they currently have the powers to intervene but this needs to be balanced with allowing freedom of speech and peaceful protest.

“On balance it was felt that the levels of anti-abortion activities were pretty low, that legislation exists to deal with any breaches of the law and that while ToP [termination of pregnancy] could be included into new legislation, it may ‘add fuel to the fire’.”