Increasing Concern over Government’s Abortion Review – Tóibín
Commenting on the report in the Irish Times that the ‘Abortion system could collapse’ Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín stated;
“There is increasing concern that the review initiated by the government will not take a balanced approached to the abortion system in Ireland. Over 20,000 babies have been aborted in Ireland so far since the law was changed. Indeed the first year of abortion being rolled out saw a massive increase in the numbers of lives lost to abortion. These are heart breaking figures yet there sems to be little effort by the government to give mothers the necessary supports to be able to have their children and raise to their children to their full potential”.
“Evidence given to the Committee on the 8th Amendment stated that 85% of abortions happen for socio economic reasons. Mothers who have abortions because the feel economically they have no choice. Yet all the information that has leaked out of the abortion review seems to be going in one direction, how to deregulation abortion law in Ireland further. At a time when mothers are homeless and pregnant much more needs to be done to see what supports can be put in place to make mothers feel that they actually have a choice”.
“Reports of the Review have stated that the service could collapse. 90% of doctors refuse to carry out abortions. Most doctors became doctors to save lives, not to end lives. The review seems to question whether doctors who object to participate in abortions on humanitarian grounds can be censured. The government must not try to deliver abortions by forcing and pressurising medics to break their commitment to be compassionate and humane”.
“Reports also state that the focus is on getting rid of the 3 day consideration time. This is an irreversible decision. The baby cannot be brought back to life after and abortion. The enormity of this decision should allow for some time to think things through, to look at the life and death consequences and to potentially research positive life affirming options. The three day wait period is saving lives, we know that about 900 women who turned up for the first abortion appointment did not book a second appointment ie. the abortion did not go ahead. There are potentially hundreds of children alive today because of that law”.
“Incredibly there is no information as of yet as to whether the Review seeks to deal with the fact that mothers so far have suffered 133 adverse incidents in the abortion system. A response to a PQ that I submitted show that there has been an extremely high number of adverse incidents reported to the State Claims Agency in relation to the abortion act. We know of at least three children who were aborted under the ‘fatal foetal abnormality’ section of the abortion act, who were fully healthy children. These were late term abortions on healthy babies and healthy mothers and yet no one is being held to account for them at all”.
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For Written Answer on : 21/03/2023
Question Number(s): 1146 Question Reference(s): 12310/23
Department: Health
Asked by: Peadar Tóibín T.D.
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QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Health the total number of adverse incidents reported to the national incident management system which related to termination of pregnancy in each of the past five years and to date in 2023.
REPLY
As the Deputy’s question relates to a service matter, I have referred it to the HSE for direct response.
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For Written Answer on : 21/03/2023
Question Number(s): 1147,1515 Question Reference(s): 12311/23, 13932/23
Department: Health
Asked by: Peadar Tóibín T.D.
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QUESTION
* To ask the Minister for Health the total number of adverse incidents reported to the State Claims Agency which related to the Health Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Act 2018 in each of the past five years, and to date in 2023; if details will be provided of the outcomes of claims taken against the State in relation to the Act; the number of claims settled or ongoing; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
- Peadar Tóibín T.D.
For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 21 March, 2023.
* To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons who are taking or have taken cases against the State alleging that their unborn baby was wrongfully diagnosed and subsequently aborted; the number of claims notified to the State Claims Agency; and the number of cases ongoing and the number of cases which have been settled.
- Peadar Tóibín T.D.
For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 21 March, 2023.
REPLY
The State Claims Agency (SCA) has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims, including claims in respect of clinical negligence, on behalf of Delegated State Authorities (DSA's) including the Health Service Executive.
I have been informed by the Agency that there have been 133 incidents reported to them from 01/01/2018 to 28/02/2023 relating to Termination of Pregnancy.
Table 1 - Termination of Pregnancy Incidents reported per year
Incident Reported Year
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
(To end Feb)
Grand Total
Number of Incidents
2
27
36
33
28
7
133
It is inappropriate to provide the years of claims as to do so could have the effect of identifying individual cases. The SCA has two ongoing claims from persons alleging that their unborn baby was wrongfully diagnosed with a condition sufficient to bring them within the scope of the Health Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Act 2018.
Notes
The information contained within this report has been extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS) as per the below criteria.
There is no specific field for these incidents on NIMS. Therefore, a key word search was completed on relevant text fields on NIMS of potentially relevant incidents reported in the relevant period. Following this, a manual review was completed to identify relevant incidents.
Criteria used
· All Healthcare locations on NIMS
· Who was involved = Patient/ Service User.
· Incidents and claims have been identified by searching in the free text fields “Summary of the Incident”, “Type of Injury (Other)” or “Sub hazard type (text)” for the words “TOP” (termination of pregnancy), “STOP” (surgical termination of pregnancy), “MTOP” (medical termination of pregnancy), “Termination”, “Medical termination”, “Abortion”.
· Additional criteria have been used for the incidents as follows:
o Incidents reported since 01/01/2018 to 28/02/2023
o Sub Hazard Type is either “Labour/Delivery”; "Diagnosis”; “Surgical/Medical”; “Care Management”; “Clinical Procedures”; "Medication" or “Birth Specific Procedures”.
· A manual review was carried out on the resulting list of incidents and claims by the relevant SCA unit to determine relevance to the query.
· This report is correct as of 28/02/2023.
Definitions:
National Incident Management System (NIMS)
Incidents (which include claims) are reported using the “National Incident Management System”.
This is hosted by the State Claims Agency (SCA) for the HSE, other Healthcare enterprises and State Authorities. An incident can be a harmful Incident (Adverse Event), no harm incident, near miss, dangerous occurrence (reportable circumstance) or complaint.
Incident Reported Date
The date the incident was created on NIMS
Who Was Involved
Field detailing the type of person involved, e.g. Staff Member, Member of the Public, etc. This is the Highest level of person category on NIMS, as displayed in the three levels below.
Sub Hazard Type
Based on the’ Incident/Hazard Category’, this grouping provides a further breakdown of hazard types. This allows for a more detailed categorisation of the incidents recorded. For example, under the ‘Clinical Care’ hazard category, the sub-hazards include ‘Labour/Delivery’, ‘Diagnosis’,
‘Surgical/Medical Procedures’, etc. Similarly, under ‘Exposure to Physical Hazards’, the sub-hazards include ‘Slips/Trips/Falls’, ‘Fire’, ‘Ergonomics (include manual/people handling)’, ‘Temperature (excluding Fire)’, ‘Radiation’, ‘Non-Mechanical (including Person/Animal)’, ‘Noise’, ‘Vibration’, and ‘Electrical & Mechanical components’.
Sub Hazard Type (text)
A subcategory of "Sub Hazard Type" this allows the user the opportunity to specify the hazard.
Type of Injury Other
A field which records sub categorisation of "Type of Injury". Cites if there are any additional injury suffered by the injured party, e.g. fracture could be cited as the 'Type of Injury', and 'Cut / Laceration', could be added to the 'Other'.
Summary of the Incident
A free text field whereby a description of the incident can be entered by the DSA. It is important that the information provided is factual based on the actual incident that occurred.
