Tag: Irish College of General Practitioners

GPs walk out of EGM over concerns about abortion services

BreakingNews

Update: Dozens of GPs staged a walk-out of the Irish College of General Practitioners’ Extraordinary General Meeting today.

300 members attended the meeting to discuss the provision of abortion services by GPs.

According to the ICGP, 50 or so GPs walked-out after 30 minutes over objections to the official procedure of the meeting.

However, Killarney-based GP Dr Andrew O’Regan, who is Pro Life, said about one-third of the group of more than 300 walked out when the board of the ICGP “refused to accept members’ motions from the floor”. . . [Full text]

GPs critical of timing of ICGP meeting on provision of abortion services

Raidió Teilifís Éireann

Ailbhe Conneely

GPs who organised a petition calling on the Irish College of General Practitioners to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting on the provision of abortion services in Ireland, have described the decision to hold it in four weeks time as “wholly unacceptable”.

The 2 December EGM was announced in a statement by the ICGP board this evening, after it received a petition from hundreds of General Practitioners, who are concerned about the introduction of GP-led abortion services here. . . . [Full text]


Majority of GPs favour Eighth Amendment repeal, campaigner claims

Halappanavar death a watershed moment, pro-choice GP campaigner says

Irish Times

Barry Roche

A significant majority of general practitioners now favour repeal of the Eighth Amendment, marking a significant change in doctors’ views over the past 15 years, according to long-time campaigner for abortion services Dr Mary Favier.

She says the death of Savita Halappanavar in 2012 proved a watershed moment for GPs, as much as for the general public.

“The death of Savita Halappanavar: that was the watershed moment – as much for GPs as for society at large,” she said. “There were just so many people upset, right-minded people who just said: ‘Oh my goodness, that’s dreadful, how could this possibly happen?’ ”

Ms Halappanavar died at University Hospital Galway a week after she presented with back pain and was found to be miscarrying, 17 weeks into a pregnancy. Although the pregnancy was not viable, her requests for termination were refused because there was a foetal heartbeat. She then contracted sepsis and died of multi-organ failure and septic shock. . . [Full text]