Abortion refusals ‘causing difficulties’

A NUMBER of hospital doctors and nurses are declining to assist in abortions, leading to scheduling problems, a leading medical body said yesterday.

Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (IOG) chief Cliodhna Murphy told RTÉ that ‘conscientious objection’ to abortions is a problem at some hospitals.

She was speaking after the organisation held an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday night to discuss the implementation of the new abortion legislation.

The meeting was called to discuss a motion regarding ‘patient safety due to inadequate preparation regarding the implementation of the legislation’. Dr Murphy said that although some of her members are already involved in helping to carry out abortions, some ‘have concerns regarding the safety and readiness of new services’.

‘There was a very open discussion,’ she told RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland.

‘Some were talking about the short interval between signing and enactment of this [legislation]. Ordinarily [when] you have legislation, there will be some lead-in period before legislation is enacted.

‘In this case, we had a very short lead-in with a very short interval. There were public reasons for that: people really did want the service up and running.’

She revealed that so far carrying out abortions in some hospitals has been ‘difficult’.

This is, Dr Murphy said, ‘because not everybody is happy or they will have conscientious objection’.

She said: ‘You are entitled to have conscientious objection and some people would have conscientious objection to surgical procedures. This is proving a difficulty in some hospitals, certainly.’

Dr Murphy said there is a feeling among IOG members that the roll-out of abortion service is happening too fast. However, the motion was not voted on at the meeting.