SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell criticised over abortion remarks

A senior Belfast hospital consultant who specialises in foetal medicine has accused SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell of undermining her profession after Dr McDonnell last month said doctors cannot predict when a foetus has a lethal abnormality.

Dr Samina Dornan of the Royal Victoria Hospital said Dr McDonnell had "undermined our professional integrity" and had "instilled a lack of confidence in the public about our ability to do our job."

"It's amazing that he, as a member of the UK parliament, is coming out with statements like this - and he's a doctor. He's telling the world that our professionals are not up to their job," she told BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show on Friday.

Dr Dornan made her criticism after Dr McDonnell last month responded to a consultation launched by the North's Justice Minister David Ford that could see abortion permitted in Northern Ireland in cases of lethal foetal abnormality and in instances of rape and incest.

Mr Ford’s draft proposals recommend that in cases such as anencephaly, where babies are stillborn or usually die within a few hours or days of birth, abortion be allowed. Anencephaly occurs when there is an absence of a major part of the brain, skull and scalp in the foetus.

Sexual crime

Mr Ford made no recommendation in relation to abortion in cases of sexual crime but asked people to give their opinions on the matter.

Last month Dr McDonnell said the SDLP was an unambiguously anti-abortion party. Referring to anencephaly, he said: “The SDLP is unequivocally opposed to abortion, even in those particular circumstances because basically, the predictions in those circumstances are never accurate.

“Nobody can predict that a foetus is not viable and that’s the problem,” he added. “As a GP, I’m fully aware, I have seen situations where termination or an abortion was recommended to somebody because a foetus that had this, that or the other thing, and that foetus grew up to be a perfectly normal child.”

Mr Ford has described Dr McDonnell’s comments as “nonsense”.

“I would be the last person to claim that doctors always get it right, but for a medically qualified politician to say doctors always get it wrong, I found slightly surprising,” he said.

The 1967 British abortion Act does not apply in the North where each year about 40 legal abortions take place. Termination is permitted in the North where it is “necessary to preserve the life of the woman or there is a risk of real and serious adverse effect on her physical or mental health, which is either long-term or permanent”.