Some health professionals see the provision of abortion services as an “indulgence” while others have reported being shunned in the corridors of hospitals for providing it, according to new research submitted as part of a wider review of the State’s termination law.
The research, which details the experiences of service providers such as hospitals and clinicians, was submitted to barrister Marie O’Shea as part of her work completing the overall review of the State’s abortion law. Ms O’Shea’s final report recommended sweeping changes to the law, and was referred by Cabinet to the Oireachtas Committee on Health.
However, health committee members will hold a private meeting next week and agree to hold a maximum of only two hearings at the end of May. Members will also likely agree that the committee will not make any recommendations to Government, and instead refer it back to the Cabinet to decide on.
This means the matter could become a live political issue again before the Dáil’s summer recess, which many politicians were hoping to avoid.
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There is a split in Cabinet among Ministers around some of the widespread recommendations made by Ms O’Shea, including the removal of the three-day wait to access abortion medication, changes to the law in terms of the 12-week limit in specific circumstances, and decriminalisation.
The issue may further be brought to a head as a Bill, which proposes many of the same recommendations as those in Ms O’Shea’s report, will come before the Dáil on the fifth anniversary of the Repeal the Eighth referendum on May 25th. The Bill is being brought by People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith, who this coming week will attempt to shore up the support of party leaders. It will then be voted on at the end of May.
The Irish Times has also seen a key piece of research which informed Ms O’Shea’s review, which contains strong findings including that there are clear “warning signs” that “without intervention in the form of investment and support for staff, the service may simply become unsustainable”.
Dr Deirdre Duffy, now at Lancaster University, and a team of researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University were appointed by the Government to carry out a study looking at the experience of abortion service providers such as hospital staff and GPs.
Dr Duffy submitted this to barrister Marie O’Shea. Dr Duffy’s research found that some health professionals still see provision of termination of pregnancy services as an “indulgence”. It also heard that some clinicians who do provide the service have been shunned by colleagues for doing so.
One medical professional told the researchers: “I certainly know of a colleague who, you know, doesn’t get saluted in the corridor now that she’s the main provider of the service, you know, by some people. She doesn’t care. But you would need to be that thick skinned is what I’m saying.”
Another medical professional told the review that women were going over the legal 12-week limit to access abortion because of public holidays and the difficulties posed by the three-day wait to access medication.
“Every year at Christmas we’ve had people who are ringing around desperately trying to get appointments before because there’s going to be no clinics the next week because there’s going to be so many bank holidays. So if they’re in that 10-12 weeks, we literally can’t get them an appointment. It has definitely happened, that I’ve spoken to someone on Christmas Eve saying, “I’m sorry, by the time the next clinic is available, you’re going to be over 12, there’s nothing I can do.’”
The provider said: “It is just a horrible thing to have to tell somebody that, ‘Yes, you’re actually legally eligible but you’re not going to get there.’”
