Abortion draft needs to change

Doctors for Choice welcomes steps to deal with the X Case.

The Irish Government has provided the first draft of legislation that will give those women who have a life threatening illness, and their doctors clarity on whether a termination can be legally performed. However, Doctors for Choice has concerns regarding the practical implications and limitations of this bill.

While Doctors for Choice welcomes any improvement in the care of women who choose to have an abortion it remains unclear whether this Bill would provide an ‘effective and accessible’ procedure for someone in the position of Savita Halappanavar or the X Case. Women in situations of rape, child sexual abuse and fatal foetal anomalies will have to wait for further legislation to allow for the option of abortion in those cases. Women who are unable to travel risk being denied an abortion or being harassed into travelling to England, despite being unfit to do so.

In the case of the risk of suicide, imposing a requirement for three doctors in excess of the maximum of two doctors recommended by the expert group. The requirement for an obstetrician to certify suicidal ideation is incomprehensible. No obstetricians claim skills in this area. GPs and psychiatrists are the doctors that routinely deal with this presentation.

There is no medical basis for differentiating between a medical emergency and a psychiatric emergency. Also, the requirement that psychiatrists work in a hospital will exclude most child psychiatrists who deal with children up to the age of 18, and this section will have to be amended to include them.

The inclusion of a 14-year prison sentence for women who have an abortion outside of these guidelines, and describing that as due to the “gravity of the crime” is particularly offensive. Every day more than a dozen Irish women will have an abortion outside of these guidelines; only in a different country. This odious section should be removed.

The role and value of GPs is mentioned in Head 4. As primary care is the most common first point of contact in medicine, a suicidal woman in early pregnancy will most likely go to her GP and be cared for in this setting initially. In reality therefore a woman could be seen by at least four doctors before being ‘certified’ as requiring an abortion.

We believe that the safest way to protect all women in Irish society is to decriminalise abortion, leaving medical matters outside the criminal law. This way we avoid legalistic terms and sanctions which have so far served solely to intimidate those who work in the field of medicine. Women should have the choice to access safe abortion services with fully informed consent. To achieve this we will need to repeal the 8th amendment.

Dr Mary Favier, Dr Peadar O’Grady, Dr Mark Murphy

Doctors For Choice

2/3 Parnell Square East

Dublin 1