A PUBLIC meeting was held last night in Dublin to highlight the plight of women who underwent symphysiotomies in Ireland.
A meeting organised by the Feminist Open Forum heard calls for Minister for Health Mary Harney to hold a public inquiry into the practice.
In a statement, the group said this “forgotten group of mothers” have “been damaged for life as a result of a barbaric and unnecessary operation” that has left them in chronic pain.
Hundreds of symphysiotomies – an operation which permanently widens the pelvis – were carried out on pregnant women in Irish hospitals between the 1950s and the 1980s, in the mistaken belief that they were safer than Caesarean sections at the time.
However, many of the women involved say that the operation was carried out without their consent and have gone on to suffer life-long health conditions such as incontinence and mobility problems.