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]

‘Women will be forced to travel for abortion’ after doctors’ decision

Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan

A decision by the four obstetricians in one of the main hospitals in the south-east not to offer an abortion service will force women to travel even though it may be difficult and expensive for them to do so, it was claimed yesterday.

The Abortion Rights Campaign was reacting to a letter to GPs from the four doctors in St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny which said it was “decided unanimously that the hospital is not an appropriate location for medical or surgical terminations”. . . . [Full text]

Major row erupts over lack of abortion services in Kilkenny

Kilkenny Now

A BITTER war of words has erupted over the failure of St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny to provide abortions services.

This morning it was reported that four consultant obstetricians at St Luke’s, among them an anti-abortion campaigner, have written to local GPs to advise that termination services are not available in the hospital.

The letter, signed by Ray O’Sullivan, Raouf Salam, Yuddandi Nagaveni, and Trevor Hayes, said that, following discussions between the four, it was “decided unanimously that the hospital is not an appropriate location for medical or surgical terminations”.

Mr Hayes was a prominent anti-abortion campaigner during the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment in May 2018.

Abortion rights campaigners reacted angrily to the news. . . [Full text]