Abortion panel proposal ‘cruel’ and ‘harebrained’
Anti-abortion psychiatrist Patricia Casey said the idea of forcing vulnerable women to go before a panel was “outrageous and harebrained”.
Doctors For Choice founder, child psychiatrist Peadar O’Grady, described the proposal as “ridiculous and cruel”.
“If that was even being considered, and I strongly believe it was, it just shows how far out of touch with reality the anti-abortion lobby, as represented by Fine Gael, are,” said Dr O’Grady.
The strongest criticism came from Anthony McCarthy, one of just three perinatal psychiatrists in the country, who said he thought the proposal was “a sick joke”.
Dr McCarthy, who is based at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin, said the notion that a woman would have to make her case to six doctors, either collectively or in individual consultations, amounted to abuse.
“It’s completely unworkable. It can only have been designed or thought about by people who really do not understand how doctors work,” he said, arguing that getting six doctors from specific disciplines together to discuss one case was ridiculous, given current workloads and waiting lists.
“If a woman is seriously distressed and depressed in pregnancy, and potentially suicidal or having suicidal ideas, the idea that you would bring her through a forum such as this — almost an inquisition — where she would have to tell her story in front of six different people, is frankly abusive. It’s truly idiotic,” he said.
Dr McCarthy added that the proposal would undo the effort the profession had put into trying to destigmatise mental health and get people to talk. “This idea would do everything to say ‘don’t talk’,” he said.
By way of example, he said he hoped a 16-year-old girl who was the victim of cyberbullying would receive full encouragement to speak up. “Every message, I would hope, would say to that young girl ‘please talk — you will be heard, you will be listened to, you will be understood, you will get compassionate and professional care’.
“But if she’s pregnant, somehow the implication is that ‘now I don’t believe you, now you may be manipulative, now you may be lying — I’m going to bring you in front of six people to tell your story’. When I first heard this I thought it is almost like a sick joke.”
Dr McCarthy said he had concerns about any type of panel having the final say, arguing that even going through that kind of process with two doctors might be sufficiently intimidating to deter a woman from seeking psychiatric help at all.
“My question to any woman in that situation would be ‘why would you put yourself through that process — we’re putting so many hoops in your way that either we don’t believe you or we are going to sabotage whatever you want anyway’.”
Dr O’Grady also said he did not believe a panel system was right or necessary. “If certification is needed to facilitate an abortion, it can be done by one doctor,” he said. “I have done it for teenagers in case where the social workers were afraid to accompany them to Britain without back-up.
“That was one child psychiatrist certifying the need and nobody challenged it so why suddenly was there a requirement for six doctors?”
He said whatever draft legislation was brought to Cabinet today would be a “flawed interim measure” as the Government was still unwilling to address the real issue of the 5,000 Irish women travelling abroad for abortions annually.
Dr Casey said that whatever mechanism was chosen for deciding whether a woman was genuinely suicidal was not the key issue and was merely a “political distraction”. She said the issue was that suicide was being considered as grounds for termination at all.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
