GP body to hold Egm on abortion services

The Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) will hold an extraordinary general meeting for its members next month to discuss the provision of abortion services.

In a statement, the ICGP said the meeting would “enable detailed discussion of the provision of termination of pregnancy services by GPs”.

The meeting will be held on December 2nd, and proposed motions will be sent in by members over the coming weeks. An ICGP committee will then rule which motions are valid for discussion at the meeting, in line with the organisation’s rules.

There has been opposition among some GPs to plans which would see practitioners provide abortion services after legislation is enacted to permit terminations of pregnancy in the State. Minister for Health Simon Harris has committed to having abortion services available by January.

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Voters last may decided to remove the constitutional ban on abortion by a two-thirds majority in a referendum. Legislation to regulate the provision of abortion services, the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018, is yet to be passed by the Oireachtas.

The joint Oireachtas committee on health will debate the legislation over three days next week in an attempt to ensure its passage is not delayed.

Previously Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said GPs would be allowed to conscientiously object to provide abortion services in their practices, but would be required to refer women seeking terminations to other practitioners. Some doctors do not agree with having to refer patients elsewhere to access such serivices.

A spokeswoman for the ICGP said its board had received a petition calling for a meeting to discuss “the concerns of some members regarding the provision by GPs of abortion services”.

“This petition, however, was not properly constituted, according to legal advice received by the board members,” the spokeswoman said.

It is understood the issue was that the petition, listing the names of more than 350 members, did not include their signatures which made it invalid.