Category: Ireland

Conscientious objection prevents full rollout of abortion services in several maternity hospitals

The Health Department said it will be asking the HSE to fully implement abortion services in all maternity hospitals and units by September.

TheJournal.ie

Gráinne Ní Aodha

THE FULL ROLLOUT of termination of early pregnancy services has been prevented in at least three maternity hospitals because of conscientious objection complications, documents seen by TheJournal.ie show.

Following the Eighth Amendment referendum last year, Health Minister Simon Harris gave 1 January as the date by which abortion services for pregnancies at 12 weeks or under would be provided. . .

. . . The rollout of full abortion services has been slower than expected: although there is some level of abortion services available in all maternity hospitals, just ten out of 19 maternity hospitals or units offer full termination of pregnancy services. . . . [Full text]

Irish obstetrician defies health minister

“I will not be forced and bullied by politicians or by the media into performing or facilitating abortions”

Sean Murphy*

Irish obstetrician defies health minister
Click to see the video

Speaking at the All-Ireland Rally for Life, Dr. Trevor Hayes, an obstetrician at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny, said that he and three consultant colleagues at the hospital advised the HSE (Irish Health Services) that they would not peform abortions.

“A great number of my colleagues are unwilling to perform surgical abortions,” he said, “and they say they will not be forced to carry out this life ending procedure”

[The politicians] want to force doctors like me to do so, and that’s not going to happen.

Would the GPs who are attacking pro-life obstetricians on Twitter perform a late-term surgical abortion? Again, I suspect most of them would not. So why are they trying to force other people to be involved in something so repugnant to those of us who adhere to the first principle of medicine, which is “do no harm”?

Shame on them for failing to respect conscientious rights of their colleagues in medicine.  But we won’t be bullied by them either.

Minister criticised for big gaps in abortion services

The Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan

Major gaps in hospital-based abortion services have been highlighted in several parts of the country, six months after the law on terminations was liberalised.

It means women are facing long journeys depending on where they live.

Doctors at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny wrote to GPs last week saying its four obstetricians “decided unanimously that the hospital is not an appropriate location for medical or surgical terminations”.

“We are having difficulties which centre around not only the issues of conscientious objection but also facilities,” said consultant obstetrician Professor Ray O’Sullivan. . . [Full Text]

Kilkenny hospital to appoint extra obstetrician to facilitate abortions

Move follows claim by four doctors that St Luke’s was not ‘an appropriate location’ for the service

The Irish Times

Paul Cullen

An additional obstetrician is to be appointed to St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny as part of the rollout of abortion services to its maternity unit.

The unit in Kilkenny is at the centre of controversy after the existing four obstetricians said it was not an “appropriate location” for the service introduced last January.

“In the event of professional and values training of staff willing to participate in such procedures, the hospital remains an unsuitable location for these services,” the consultants said in a letter to Ireland East Hospital Group chief executive Mary Day last week. . . . [Full text]

Harris says all maternity hospitals ‘should be in a position’ to offer abortion services after Kilkenny medics letter

TheJournal.ie

Sean Murray

MINISTER FOR HEALTH Simon Harris has said that it is the policy of the Department of Health that all 19 maternity hospitals in Ireland should be in a position to provide termination of pregnancy services, following a letter sent by four doctors at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny last week.

Harris said he had asked his officials to engage with the HSE over this letter, where the doctors said that abortions should not be offered at the hospital. . . .[Full text]