Although terminations, including the mandatory two doctor’s appointments, are free for women from the Republic, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said northern women will have to pay. The Republic’s health minister Simon Harris had pledged that he will look at providing free abortions to women from the north but the spokeswoman said “a mechanism has yet to be found”. In 2017, around 3,092 women from the Republic and 919 from the north travelled to have an abortion in England or Wales.