The Abortion Review is Full of Discrepancies and Research Key Gaps -Tóibín
Aontú Leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has called for the Government to constitute a full specific Oireachtas Committee to analyse the Abortion Review. An Teachta Tóibín stated:
“We are just 5 years since the referendum yet we have an Abortion Review that seeks to radically change the abortion law that people voted upon. Its incredibly important that the necessary research, analysis and examination of the Abortion Review is carried out”.
Today’s short committee didn’t allow all the TDs who wanted to participate, ask questions or tease out the issues. This is a weakness and its clear that we need a more robust mechanisms to proceed. Many people are also surprised at the significant discrepancies between the Abortion Review and the actual figures produced by the Department of Health. The reasons given for these discrepancies were not satisfactory all. A review of such importance should be accurate. These discrepancies reduces confidence people have in the quality of the research”.
“What really amazed people today was that fact that neither the author of the review nor her team actually spoke to one mother who availed of the 3 day wait time and proceeded to have her child. Nearly 4,000 mothers did not attend the second abortion meeting. While there are different reasons for this, one of the main reasons is the purpose of the 3 day wait, that thousands of mothers changed their mind and are now raising their child. The author of the review never sought to reach out to, speak to, phone or email one mother or child who is the beneficiary of a key protection that they seek to delete. This is astounding”.
“Abortion 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. It is the Human condition that we all make mistakes, none of us can say that we haven’t made mistakes, especially at a time of stress or crisis”.
“Another shocking admission by the authors of the report was that they did not speak to some mothers who had suffered adverse incidents due to the way the legislation is being implemented. I raised the case of Baby Christopher, a fully healthy baby boy who was aborted at 15 weeks gestation due in large part to the absence of properly qualified staff. I have spoken to the mother of Baby Christopher and others who are very disappointed that the author of the report never reached out to speak with her in person or over the phone. This absence of research is incredible. This review prioritises access over women’s safety. It proposes a reduction in staff qualification and numbers of staff in dealing with these very complex cases. It does this to increase access to abortion. It will, if implemented lead to a repetition the harrowing wrong that was done to the parents of Baby Christopher”.
“If the government delete these safeguards they are clearly reneging on promises made to the people to get the abortion referendum passed. The Government told us to trust them on this. But if we couldn’t trust them on housing, on the health service, on evictions, and the Cost of living how could we have trusted them on the human right to life? CRIOCH
