It is “totally and utterly unacceptable” that just 11 maternity hospitals out of 19 are currently providing abortion services, the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said.
Mr Donnelly said he is working closely with the HSE to bring that figure to 17 hospitals this year and to 19 early next year.
The Minister said he has examined a review into the State’s abortion laws in detail and would bring it to Government “very shortly”. He said the report by barrister Marie O’Shea would be then published.
He was responding in the Dáil on Thursday to People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, who asked when the report would be published and called for the current legislation to be reformed.
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When the original law allowing access to abortion care came into effect, the then government decided there should be a review of how effectively the system operated within three years. It has looked at the experiences of women and service providers, and there was also a public consultation. It has also assessed the extent to which the objectives of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 have been achieved.
‘Productive conversations’
Mr Donnelly said he had had “very productive conversations” with Ms O’Shea and “I’ve also met with some of the clinical leads who are providing these service as well”.
“As to will it be published - absolutely. It will be published and it’s my intention to publish research that fed into it [the review]. We will publish all of the research papers as well as the full report,” he told the House.
Mr Donnelly said the report was “very useful” and had identified “various things that work well and various things that we need to improve at an operational level”. He said the report also included some legislative recommendations.
“I have no doubt the [Oireachtas] health committee will take time and will consider the report as well and then we will have, I think quite a lively debate, hopefully a very respectful debate,” he said.
“Ultimately, my driving concern is around patient care, making sure that we get the best possible healthcare services in this country. I have no doubt that the report, as we would all expect, will generate debate.
‘Best of intentions’
“It is a topic that is of a lot of interest to a lot of people who are coming at it with the very best of intentions, and I think we will be into that debate quite soon.”
The Fianna Fáil TD said, regardless of the report, his and the HSE’s “core focus” was the provision of abortion services and increasing the number of maternity hospitals providing such services.
Mr Donnelly also said there was now more than 400 GPs around the country providing services.
“It’s gone up a lot, it’s gone up by half in recent times,” he said. “But we want to make sure that there is as much access as possible as well. Regardless of anything in the report, that’s where a lot of my focus is this year.”
