Category: Abortion

Hospital denies legal abortion care

The Ombudsman’s Office calls for punitive action

Correo del Sur

Caution: machine assisted translation of “Hospital niega atención de aborto legal.” Correo del Sur, 15 Marzo 2019.

The Ombudsman’s Office asked the authorities of the Jaime Mendoza Hospital, the National Health Fund and the Ministry of Health to take civil, criminal and / or administrative action against those responsible for violating the rights of a pregnant woman who requested legal interruption of her pregnancy due to congenital malformation of the fetus, a right that was denied.

The case was made public yesterday by the Ombudsman, Nadia Cruz, who said that the decision of the citizen is supported by the Plurinational Constitutional Judgment No. 206/2014, but despite this, the hospital refused to perform the termination of pregnancy, so the woman had to resort to another center.

She explained that the rule permits legal interruption when “pregnancy endangers the health or life of women, there is the existence of lethal congenital malformations, or is the product of rape, rape and incest.” She asked for respect for the law and the human rights of women.

Obstetrics and anaesthesia job pre-conditions dismay bishops

Requirement to carry out elective abortions part of National Maternity Hospital job spec

The Irish Times

Patsy McGarry

The Catholic bishops have expressed regret at pre-conditions for applicants in recent advertisements for medical posts at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin.

One of the main preconditions for applicants for the posts in obstetrics and anaesthesia was a requirement to carry out elective abortions if appointed. . . [T]he bishops said “this precondition runs totally counter to a doctor’s constitutional and human right to freedom of conscience. . .” [Full text]

State hospitals must provide abortion if Catholic clinics will not – report

Patient’s life must take precedence over ethos in emergencies, says report

The Irish Times

Paul Cullen

State-owned hospitals should provide abortions in situations where neighbouring Catholic institutions are unwilling to do so, a new report suggests. . . the report says it is clear there will be situations where abortions have to be carried out in acute hospitals, rather than maternity units. There are seven Catholic voluntary hospitals in Dublin, Cork and Limerick . . . [Full text]

Abortion and the medical profession

The Irish Times (Letter)
Reproduced with permission

Dr. Noreen O’Carroll

Sir, –

Dr Mark Murphy states that doctors who are opposed to abortion are in no way affected by the new service and their conscientious right to objection is respected.

In fact, doctors who have a conscientious objection are legally compelled to make arrangements for the transfer of care of the pregnant woman concerned to someone who will terminate the pregnancy. For doctors who cherish human life from its origins, that is tantamount to making them accomplices in taking the life of a developing baby.

This is an abuse of conscience and contrary to the practice of medicine in the spirit of the Hippocratic oath which prohibits the direct intentional taking of human life.

Dr Murphy, who you omitted to mention is on the staff of the department of general practice at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, is one of a minority of GPs in Ireland who have signed up to provide abortion services; the vast majority of GPs have not done so – 274 was the figure recently reported by the HSE.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of a pro-life group; although as an ordinary citizen, I have consistently advocated for the life of the developing baby to be legally protected and have voted accordingly.

– Yours, etc, Dr Noreen O’Carroll, (Lecturer in Medical Ethics, RCSI), Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Indiana bill extends conscience protection to medical abrtions

Sean Murphy*

Indiana Senate Bill 201, proposed by Senator Liz Brown, has been amended in committee and is progressing through the Indiana General Assembly. Existing Indiana law protects freedom of conscience for physicians, nurses and institutional employees in relation to surgical abortion. Bill 201 amends the statute to include medical abortion and extends protection to physician assistants and pharmacists.