Women who have a chemically-induced abortion in the first nine weeks of pregnancy will be able to obtain abortion drugs directly from their GP or hospital doctor. This means they will not have to fill a prescription in a pharmacy. This will avert the need to have to produce a prescription in public.

Meanwhile, the option of contracting private clinics to provide an ultrasound service to women seeking an abortion, under proposed new legislation, is being considered.

However, doctors have queried how they will source the required expertise, given that there is a shortage of sonographers.

Dr Mike Thompson, a GP member of Start (Southern Taskgroup on Abortion and Reproductive Topics), said private clinics had not previously provided routine pregnancy scans, so it was “unclear how they can now offer a very specialised scanning service”.

A specialised service of early medical ultrasounds would be needed to ensure that a pregnancy is not gone beyond 63 days, the cut-off point for when abortion-inducing drugs could be administered.