Unacceptable only 11 of country’s 19 maternity units providing abortion services, says Donnelly

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said that more GPs need to provide abortion services and that it was not acceptable that only 11 of the 19 maternity units in the country were providing such services.

“We need more GPs providing the services, particularly in some areas. And the other issue which I’m working very closely with the HSE on, is that only 11 of the 19 maternity units are currently providing services. That is not acceptable.

“These services are available under law in this country. All 19 maternity units should be providing these services by this year. Our aim this year is to get from 11 to 17 and early next year to get to all 19″.

Mr Donnelly was commenting on a review of abortion services. The work of healthcare providers needed to be acknowledged, he told RTÉ Radio’s News at One.

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When asked if providing abortion services could be included as part of the “job spec” for consultants being hired by the HSE, Mr Donnelly replied that “any medical practitioner, regardless of the terms that they are hired on, is fully within their rights legally to conscientiously object, even if they have been hired with a job description that includes provision of terminations.

“What the HSE is doing and it is something that I support them in doing, is in areas where there simply are no consultants available providing the services or too few. What they’re saying is as part of the consultant job spec, they are looking for people who are willing to provide these services as part of their job”.

It could not be a mandatory requirement under law, if such a recommendation were to be made mandatory it would require a legislative amendment, which could be considered by the Oireachtas Health Committee, he said. Mr Donnelly denied the suggestion that the report had been on his desk since October.

“No, I only received it in the last few weeks. The original hope had been that I would get it last October. But the reviewer was waiting on an additional piece of research that only was concluded, I think it was in January. And then they needed a bit of time to reflect on that and include it in the report. So we got a small number of weeks ago”.

The time frame for any necessary legislation change would depend on the length of time that the Health Committee spends reviewing the report, he said. “They may want to spend a good deal of time on this. There will be passionately held views on both sides of this, there will be the expert medical view, probably expert legal view as well. So what I want to do is give the health committee the time that it feels it needs”.

It was feasible that any necessary changes could be concluded within the lifetime of the current Government. “It is, of course, feasible. I just can’t give an exact timeline now. It depends on the committee proceedings.

“It’s an issue that is going to require a careful and respectful debate and consideration, not just in Government, but in the Oireachtas and across society. And I think we can all accept that in the debate on repeal and then in the debate on the legislation, which I was involved in as a member of the health committee, by and large, that debate was held, I think, in a very respectful way. And I imagine we will conduct ourselves in the Oireachtas and in public in the same way this time”.

Also on Wednesday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said no decision has been made by the Government on any of the legislative proposals put forward by an independent review into the State’s abortion laws.

Mr Varadkar said Fine Gael TDs will have a “free vote” on any changes to the legislation.

A report by barrister Marie O’Shea into the effectiveness of Ireland’s abortion law, in place since January 2019 following the referendum to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, has recommended a number of changes to the legislation.

It has also recommended a number of operational changes in order to increase the level of abortion services available in communities and hospitals.

Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said many people would be shocked by the abortion review report.

“The Government persuaded many thousands of people to vote for the abortion referendum on the basis there would be some safeguards for children, yet five years later, it looks like the Government is going to wash away the remaining safeguards,” he said.

The Meath West TD said it now appeared that the three-day wait period was under threat and “the ability of the majority of doctors to refuse to carry out abortions on the basis of conscientious objection will be threatened”.

He asked the Taoiseach was the Government “about to delete the few remaining rights unborn children have”.

In response, Mr Varadkar said Mr Tóibín was “jumping the gun a bit here” and that the review was commissioned by the Government, as they were mandated and required by the Oireachtas to do.

“All the Government has decided is to refer the operational aspects to the HSE for implementation and the legislative changes, not proposed by the Government but by the reviewer, to the Oireachtas Committee on Health for further consideration,” Mr Varadkar said.

“We have made no decision whatsoever on any of those legislative proposals. It will now sit with the Oireachtas committee. They will have a chance to consider it and make a report back to the Government, and we will consider it then.

“I would anticipate, it won’t be for every party but certainly for my party and I think it will be the same for Fianna Fáil and perhaps Sinn Féin and other parties as well, this will be a free vote and a vote of conscience for people.”

Meanwhile, a Fianna Fáil Minister who voted no in the 2018 referendum on abortion has said he broadly supports the recommendations of an independent report on the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy laws including the scrapping of the three-day pause.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has said that like a lot of other people his views on this issue has evolved and he broadly accepts its findings.

It is a significant turnaround of view for the Dublin Fingal TD. He said that after the vote in 2018, he respected the vote of the people and had voted for all the legislation without amendments.

Mr O’Brien said he welcomed the report and its recommendations on Tuesday when it was discussed at the weekly meeting of Cabinet.

“There are some real issues with people not being able to access services that that are that we are legally bound to provide. From looking at the changes that have been proposed, I would broadly welcome them and I’ll support them. Women can’t access abortion services in parts of our country and some of our State-run hospitals That is wrong.”

On the mandatory three-day pause required after the first consultation with a medical practitioner, he said: “The three-day wait can be very problematic for a lot of people.”

He said he had not read all of the report but what he had read he was supportive of.

“The proposals that are being brought forward, none of them would cause any difficulty to me, and I’d be broadly supportive. But I want the Health Committee to do the work that they have to do and consider [completing] a detailed report in a in an efficient fashion.”