"Say if you had an abortion and you came back here to Ireland; you could find yourself faced with those pro-life people who you see on O'Connell Street. They could show you fliers with graphic pictures on them. It's better for you to see and know everything before you go."

There were four photographs on the leaflet showing aborted foetuses. She paused for a moment before describing what had happened to the foetus in each of the photographs.

"Now, you can't have an abortion until eight weeks because if they did it any earlier there's too much of a danger of leaving a part behind because it's so small, " she continued. "That would be what's called a missed abortion, and you'd have to be sent back for another one. You'd still be pregnant if they left a bit behind. That's why they wait, especially on Irish women, they won't do it before eight weeks."

Before producing the leaflet, she had played me two DVDs. The first showed a US doctor displaying and describing all of the surgical instruments used to carry out abortions, occasionally demonstrating the actions involved. The second showed US teenagers awed by an ultrasound.

She read to me a list of all of the possible sideeffects of abortion ("I'm not saying that all or any of these will apply to you, it's just to inform you.") They included increased risk of breast cancer and miscarriage, sterility, child abuse and an inability to be around children afterwards. She mentioned how "other counsellors" at the agency had seen "at least three" women who had needed colostomies after an abortion.

Towards the end, she took out a plastic baby, roughly the length of a mobile phone. This was the size of a foetus at 10 weeks, she said. Using her pen, she demonstrated what happened during a dilation and curettage.

Almost 90 minutes after I'd first arrived, it ended. She said that it would be easier for me to make a decision now that I was "informed".