‘No morning-after pill.. you’re lying about rape’
Emergency service ‘denied’
Ms O’sullivan A WOMAN has claimed she was denied the morning-after pill when a pharmacy accused her of lying about being raped.
Vanessa O’sullivan, from southwest Cork, says she was asked a series of invasive questions before being denied emergency contraception.
In harrowing turn of events, the 24-year-old discovered she was pregnant and she was forced to travel to the UK to abort the baby.
Under Irish legislation, pharma- can refuse to dispense the drug under “conscientious objection” meaning staff can say no if they feel it affects their conscience.
Ms O’sullivan said: “The particular pharmacist told me, ‘If you are going to lie to me, I can’t help you’. They can refuse you if they are having a bad day or if they don’t feel right about it.”
Ms O’sullivan hid the rape from her friends and family before finding out she was expecting.
She was forced to work to earn enough money to travel to England to terminate the pregnancy.
Ms O’sullivan told Neil Prendeville on Cork’s Red FM: “I had to apply online for a termination in London. I phoned them and I had to go over for a series of consultacists tions over the period of three days and it cost around €1,100.”
Initially, she tried to report her case to gardai, but she was asked if she had drink taken before a male officer took her away to give a statement.
Ms O’sullivan said: “As if that [drink] would justify what he had done? I was taken to a secondary room and it took me about 20 minutes to say the words, ‘I was raped’ and that was the first very cold response that I received.”