{"id":3076,"date":"2013-06-16T06:00:06","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T06:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=3076"},"modified":"2013-06-16T06:00:48","modified_gmt":"2013-06-16T06:00:48","slug":"new-irish-abortion-law-demands-referral-by-objectors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=3076","title":{"rendered":"New Irish abortion law demands referral by objectors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 <\/em><\/a>will permit abortions when there is a “real and substantial risk” to the life of a woman by reason of physical illness or\u00a0suicidal ideation. In the former case, two medical practitioners must certify the risk.\u00a0 In the case of threats to commit suicide, three medical practitioners, including two psychiatrists,\u00a0must certify the risk.\u00a0 In all cases, they must also certify that the risk can only be averted by abortion.\u00a0 In emergencies, when there is an immediate risk of the mother’s death and the abortion is necessary to save her life, a medical practitioner may provide an abortion without prior certification.<\/p>\n

Protection\u00a0 of Conscience Provision<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Act\u00a0 <\/em>includes a protection of conscience provision <\/a>that is limited to medical practitioners, midwives and nurses.\u00a0 A provision that denied freedom of conscience to institutions has been dropped.\u00a0 However, no conscientious objection will be allowed in emergencies when the mother’s life is in immediate danger.<\/p>\n

One third of Irish psychiatrists signed a letter <\/a>to the government asserting that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal ideation, so it is not clear how the part of the Act<\/em> dealing with threats of suicide will function in practice.<\/p>\n

The Act demands that medical practitioners who do not want to participate in the procedure must arrange “for the transfer of care of the pregnant woman concerned as may be necessary to enable the woman to avail of the medical procedure concerned.”\u00a0 Many conscientious objectors are unwilling to refer patients for morally contested procedures because they believe that by doing so they become morally complicit in wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

However, it is far from certain how\u00a0much difficulty the mandatory referral requirement\u00a0will cause, since the\u00a0Act<\/em> envisions abortion only in circumstances involving a substantial risk to the mother’s life.\u00a0\u00a0This is very rare, and in such circumstances there is much less likelihood of conscientious objection, so the provision may not prove to be troublesome in practice.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, government comments accompanying the\u00a0earlier “heads of bill”\u00a0noted that medical practitioners do not need to be of the opinion that the risk to the woman’s life “is inevitable or immediate.”\u00a0 The more broadly this\u00a0interpretation is construed, the more likely it is that conflicts of conscience will occur, and the greater will be the surrounding controversy.<\/p>\n

While the proposed bill is the product of the controversy generated by the death of Savita Halippanavar in Galway in October of last year, it does not appear to propose anything that would have made a difference to the outcome of that case.\u00a0 Her death was caused by a particularly virulent infection that is not normally found in maternity settings.\u00a0 An emergency induction of the kind contemplated\u00a0the proposed\u00a0Act<\/em>\u00a0was legal at that time and had been decided upon when she spontaneously delivered a stillborn daughter.\u00a0 (See A “medical misadventure” in Ireland: Deaths of Savita and Prasa Halappanavar<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 The\u00a0Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 will permit abortions when there is a “real and substantial risk” to the life of a woman by reason of physical illness or\u00a0suicidal ideation. In the former case, two medical practitioners must certify the risk.\u00a0 In the case of threats to … Continue reading “New Irish abortion law demands referral by objectors”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,41,7,9],"tags":[293,315],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-3076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-ireland","category-law","category-news","tag-referral","tag-savita-halappanavar"],"yoast_head":"\r\nNew Irish abortion law demands referral by objectors - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=3076\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Irish abortion law demands referral by objectors - Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 The\u00a0Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 will permit abortions when there is a “real and substantial risk” to the life of a woman by reason of physical illness or\u00a0suicidal ideation. 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