“Wider provision” of abortion services is needed in Ireland, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said, after a recent report showed that just over half of HSE hospitals were offering terminations of pregnancy three years after such procedures became legal.
The study, Unplanned Pregnancy and Abortion Care (UnPAC), conducted by Trinity College Dublin for the HSE, said abortion legislation in Ireland “falls short” of women’s needs, creating anguish and shame, and causes a “chilling” effect on clinicians who can face criminal sanctions for breaching the regulations.
Under the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, there is a three-day waiting period for a woman seeking an abortion, which can be performed up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy. Beyond that, terminations can only be carried out if there is a threat to life or health of the mother or if healthcare professionals believe the foetus is likely to die before or within 28 days of birth.
Anyone who aids or abets abortion outside the specific terms of the law is liable for criminal prosecution with health professionals under the obligation to determine themselves when the statutory criteria for access to care has been met.
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The UN Human Rights Committee on Wednesday highlighted the situation for clinicians, saying there had been “positive developments” in Irish abortion law in recent years but there remained a need to remove “all form of criminal sanctions” especially for “medical service providers who assist women and girls in these procedures”.
Committee chair Photini Pazartzis also called for “other measures to guarantee access — effective access — especially to women which are in regions far away or to vulnerable areas”.
Mr Donnelly said the Government is doing a number of things to increase access to such services. “At the start of this year, only 10 of the 19 HSE hospitals were providing termination services. In my view it needs to be all 19. By the end of this year, we’ll be at either 14 or 15, so there will be a very big increase this year,” he said. “There’s still a very small number of GPs involved for various reasons.”
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved plans allowing for safe access zones to be set up within 100m of facilities that provide termination of pregnancy services. Under the proposed laws, anti-abortion protests will also be prohibited near facilities that could be providing access to terminations. This effectively means the introduction of exclusion zones around all hospitals, GP practices as well as other facilities such as Well Woman and Irish Family Planning Association centres.
Mr Donnelly said he hoped the law would come into operation this year and that he believed the measure would help to encourage the wider provision of services.
“That’s one of the things we’re doing, which may help, and which may bring some comfort to GPs as well.”
Responding to the announcement, Pro Life Campaign member Eilís Mulroy said the approach “sets a very dangerous precedent” and denies freedom of expression and the right to peacefully assemble in public areas.
“The proposal being put forward is a wholly disproportionate response to the risk that a tiny number of people may at some point in the future engage in harassing behaviour close to an abortion facility,” she said. “No one wants to see people harassed when approaching a hospital or GP surgery ... The fact that citizens could be jailed under this proposal for silently expressing a position in public is utterly alarming.”
She said: “The Government’s proposal has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with singling out a particular category of people, namely those who oppose abortion, and criminalising the expression of their views. In the interests of basic civil liberties and the constitutional right to peacefully assemble, the Government’s proposal must be opposed every step of the way.”
A review of the operation of the State’s abortion regime is under way and expected to be completed this autumn.
Figures published earlier this month showed that the number of abortions reported to the Department of Health last year fell to 4,577, some 2,000 fewer than in 2020, though some sources questioned the accuracy of reporting during the pandemic.
