Reilly: We need clarity but may not require legislation
There were other options, including issuing a ministerial directive, he said.
Speaking in the wake of the tragic death of 31-year-old Savita Halappanavar, Dr Reilly said he would be “in a better position to comment” once he had read the review of the expert group set up by the Government to examine how Ireland could implement a European court ruling in relation to abortion rights.
“Everybody is talking about legislation,” said Dr Reilly. “But, I mean, are we so certain, and I haven’t seen the report, that it’s legislation that’s required?”
Speaking at the second national primary care conference at Mallow Primary Healthcare Centre yesterday, Dr Reilly conceded that “clarity must be given to the medical profession as to when they can intervene and when they can’t under the law in this country”.
However, whether that was done “by legislation, whether it’s done by way of directive, whether it’s done by way of referendum, there’s a whole host of possibilities here”.
Dr Reilly said he needed time to read the report to “see what direction it sends us in”.
He denied that the arrival on his desk of the report at the time news was breaking of the Halappanavar tragedy was anything other than coincidence.
The group, chaired by Justice Sean Ryan, was due to report in July, and again in October, but finally did so on Tuesday night, he said.
Dr Reilly conceded that “20 years was a long time to leave people with uncertainty” about the abortion issue. This was a referral to the 1992 X case when the Supreme Court ruled the threat of suicide by the mother was grounds for an abortion.
Dr Reilly said the issue had divided the nation a number of times, that it was an extremely sensitive issue and “one that evokes very strong emotions”. But, he said, “we have to do what we’re obliged to do under law and we have to give clarity to the medical profession so that they feel that they can act within the law and I think no more than that can be said at the moment”.
Dr Reilly refused to put a timeframe on when the Government would act, but said he would report to Government on the contents of the expert report “within a matter of weeks to months”.
He said his personal position on abortion was that the matter must be clarified “so that the medical profession in this country can act within the law and act in the best interests of patients”.
Dr Reilly said he was not embarrassed by the situation Ireland found itself in, under the international spotlight following the death of a woman refused an abortion despite the hospital acknowledging she was miscarrying her child. However, he was “deeply saddened”.
He said it was now time to consider the appropriate course of action once the expert report had been read: “I think the people who elected this government would expect no less than for us to behave in a responsible fashion and to read the report and consider its contents and the way forward from here.”
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