Terms of inquiry set into care of woman in abortion case

A four-person team has been appointed by the HSE to report on the care given to the young woman who says she was raped, denied an abortion and later had her pregnancy delivered by Caesarean section.

The terms of reference for the inquiry were published by at about 9pm.

The young woman at the centre of the case arrived in the State earlier this year and found out she was pregnant shortly afterwards. She accessed crisis pregnancy support soon after, at about eight weeks’ gestation. She became increasingly distressed as it became clear she was unable to travel for an abortion due to the costs involved and restrictions on her right to travel. She says she was suicidal.

She came to the attention of HSE psychiatric services at about 24 weeks’ gestation, when it was deemed too late to abort the pregnancy, despite the fact she was deemed suicidal under the provisions of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act. The pregnancy was instead delivered by Caesarean at about 26 weeks after she had gone on a hunger and thirst strike.

The case, which has reignited the abortion debate, came to light last weekend.

The inquiry team, which will be chaired by Dr Philip Crowley, the HSE's National Director, Quality and Patient Safety Division, been asked to report back "in the shortest period possible".

The three others on the team are Catriona Molloy, a patient advocate with Patient Focus, Alice O'Flynn, an independent consultant and a former assistant national director of social inclusion in the HSE and Mick Brophy, a former senior investigator in the Ombudsman's office.

They are tasked with establishing the facts of this case – the chronology, the agencies and personnel the young woman – who is being named ‘Ms Y’ in this inquiry - came into contact with during the 17 to 18 weeks of her pregnancy in the State.

The terms of reference said the team would also “examine and document the chain of communication between different service providers including referrals between services and the flow of information related to Miss Y both internally in the HSE and externally. “In the event that any failings in service delivery are identified, the report is to identify the causes and contributory factors,” the HSE said.

“The HSE confirms if there are disputes of facts that these will be reflected in the report. All efforts will be made to protect the anonymity of Miss Y in the Report. The HSE will ensure that Miss Y will have legal representation in her participation in the preparation of the Report and that the HSE will discharge the reasonable costs of same.”

A spokeswoman for the HSE said further investigations may be deemed necessary once this report has established the facts.

Meanwhile, several hundred people attended a vigil organised by the Pro-Life Campaign outside Leinster House in Dublin this evening.