Abortion for fatal foetal abnormality ‘denied in hospital’

Deeply upset woman told TD that ‘this is not what I voted for, I have constitutional rights’

Irish Independent

Cormac McQuinn and Eilish O’Regan

A distraught woman whose unborn baby was diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality was refused a termination at one of the country’s biggest maternity hospitals, it was claimed yesterday.

The woman who was attending the Coombe hospital in Dublin was certified by two doctors as eligible for an abortion under the new legislation, which has been in operation for nearly three weeks.

It’s understood the woman was 13 weeks into her pregnancy. . . [Full text]

Chilean court: Private health facilities can’t be forced to do abortions

Crux

Catholic News Agency

SANTIAGO, Chile – A Chilean court has ruled that private healthcare facilities may conscientiously object to abortions, declaring unconstitutional a law that had gone into effect in October.

By a vote of 8-2, the nation’s Constitutional Court struck down a portion of the Regulation on Conscientious Objection of the Law on Abortion. The court accepted a Dec. 6 appeal filed by senators of the Chile Vamos coalition which sought to annul part of the Department of Health regulation. . .[Full text]

Alarming gap in assisted dying in Antigonish

The Chronicle Herald

Jocelyn Downie

Today (Dec. 17) marks two and a half years since the coming into force of Canada’s federal legislation on medical assistance in dying (MAiD).

In Nova Scotia, MAiD has now been requested in about 400 cases and provided in about 200. Unfortunately, there is one particularly notable gap in access to MAiD: St. Martha’s Regional Hospital, a publicly funded faith-based institution in Antigonish, refuses to allow MAiD within its walls. . . [Full text]

‘We will offer terminations for fatal defects from January’ – Holles St chief

Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan

WOMEN whose unborn babies have fatal abnormalities will be able to get abortions from January at the National Maternity Hospital.

The hospital’s master, Dr Rhona Mahony, made the pledge as it emerged that some maternity hospitals and GPs will not be ready to begin the extension of abortions services from that date. . . [Full text]

Maternity hospital governance ‘will be resolved when it’s resolved’ – Taoiseach

Varadkar says law enacted by Oireachtas will apply, ‘not Canon or any other law’

The Irish Times

Marie O’Halloran, Martin Wall

The controversy over the governance and ownership of the new national maternity hospital when it moves from Dublin’s Holles Street to a site at the St Vincent’s hospital campus “will be resolved when it is resolved”, the Taoiseach has said.

Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that Minister for Health Simon Harris was still engaging with the existing National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street and the St Vincent’s Hospital Group to get it right “but we are confident that we can get there”. . . [Full text]