At least one woman has died while flying home from the UK due to complications arising from an abortion she had there, according to a report by The Irish Times.

Professor Fergal Malone, master of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, told the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment about the incident. 

'We are aware of at least one of our patients from Ireland who died following a complication from a surgical termination of pregnancy while travelling between Ireland and a centre abroad.'

'Forcing patients to travel between two jurisdictions, particularly when dealing with travel between islands, will inevitably increase the risks to mothers’ physical health and wellbeing,' he said.

It was also suggested at the meeting that Irish women are risking their lives and health by inducing their own abortions when they cannot access the suitable care they need. 

Dr Abigail Aiken presented a number of methods used by women, as gathered from interviews conducted using the Women on Web website.

'These include coat hangers, starvation, high doses of vitamin C, strenuous exercise, large quantities of alcohol, scalding water, drinking bleach, throwing themselves down stairs,' she said, according to The Irish Times.

The Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment has also been told that the option of replacing the 8th Amendment with a law which allows abortion in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities will still endanger the lives of women.

All of the options to be considered by the committee are being vetted by barrister Nuala Butler.

The advice on the option of abortion in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality has been called 'likely to prove very difficult' due to the issue of establishing evidence of these conditions.

Butler told the committee that only a repeal of the amendment would give 'a degree of immediate legal certainty' to the issue in the short term.