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A WOMAN DIED in recent years on a flight home from the UK after undergoing a pregnancy termination, according to the master of one of Ireland’s leading maternity hospitals.
Fergal Malone, master of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin’s north city centre, made the revelation over the course of the evening hearing of the Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution at Leinster House yesterday.
During his opening remarks to the Committee, Malone discussed the options available to women pregnant with cases of fatal foetal abnormality, including the option to travel for a termination abroad.
He described one of the main concerns of splitting such care across jurisdictions as being “the potential risks to the physical health of the mother when travelling”:
“Risks associated with travelling for pregnancy termination include infection or haemorrhage which has tragically resulted in the death of one of our patients when travelling to the United Kingdom.”
He said, that in the case of women who choose to terminate their pregnancy, the hospital cannot make direct referrals.
“Patients who choose this course of action are supported to within the limits of Irish legislation,” he said.
Malone continued to say that a journey abroad for a termination in such circumstances is “clearly associated with significant additional challenges for patients, including travelling for healthcare to an unfamiliar city with no family support, significant financial costs, typically €800 to €1500, not including travel costs”, together with the “significant distress associated with leaving their baby’s remains in another country”.
He said that obstetricians are faced with many challenges when dealing with cases of complex foetal abnormalities, not least the reliance on “patients themselves communicating complex medical information”.
In 2016, Malone said, 55 patients of the Rotunda Hospital travelled from Ireland to the UK for terminations in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.
“We cannot contact staff directly on behalf of a particular patient,” said Malone, adding that there is a “distinct lack of fairness” between the standard of care afforded to a mother carrying a baby with a fatal foetal abnormality who chooses to stay in Ireland as compared with a woman who chooses to travel and is “forced to endure the split of her care between two jurisdictions”.
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So they did well at local and European elections, but that doesn’t be the same for general election. The arrogance grows strong as Yoda would say.
@John John: 62 days and he is still counting
@Mick McGuinness: winners are entitled to be arrogant, Shinners however, lol
@Mick McGuinness: Just like in 2019, FF/FG won 52% of the seats in the local elections, in the general election that followed FF and FG lost so much ground from the previous years local elections that they had to form a coalition for thge first time in their history, sworn enemies, so on that basis you definitely cannot take anything for granted in politics.
People should not waste their votes, the turnout at these elections was abysmal.
@Duffman: winners? FG and FF had a poorer showing in these local elections compared to 2019. Whereas SF increased their seats compared to 2019.
@Ian: Yes, Mary Lou was absolutely delighted with the result yesterday – “It has not been our day but we will have our day … we clearly have lessons to learn”. You need to compare this result with expectation, not with the abysmal showing of SF back in 2019.
@SYaxJ2Ts: There’s an easy metric: did David Cullinane shout ‘Up the Ra!’ at any point?
If not, SF’s showing was poor.
@Ian: still more than SF, granted numbers are not the Shinners strong point lol
This will come back to bite them, they should take advantage now of the voter apathy.
Patriots on here gone EXTREMELY quiet who kept repeating how they and everyone were going to vote for Ireland First / Führer Party / white Nationalism party / Irish people because something got to do with their failed referendums and migration. Well “mass immigration” FFG will romp home at the GE. The far-right no-seats parties have gone VERY quiet on their socials as they didn’t win a seat.
@9QRixo8H: You could almost hear a pin drop they’re gone that quiet. Meanwhile, over on the cesspit that is The Gript, the comments sections are hilarious! They’re crying foul and rigged elections hahahaha those people are utterly deluded.
@Ian: the ethnoNational party in total got 0.3%. The Führer party got 0.5%. Ireland First got 0.2%. Imagine that! Yet going by the comments on here they were due to get 110%. So much for the “openborders” the “unvetted” and “mass immigration” blah blah blah. The führer is dead.
@9QRixo8H: Well they did win a few seats and, more importantly, ate into SF support. All but guaranteeing two things. Another FF/FG led government and and the continued rise of the far right. FF/FG have willingly allowed the far right to grow to keep themselves in power and undermine SF. Just another example of irreparable damage they’ve done to this country.
@Gareth: ‘FF/FG have willingly allowed the far right to grow’???? How could they stop haters and racists from being haters and racists?
If the far right have taken votes from SF, it just goes to show that SF wasn’t really the left-wing party it claimed to be: it was far too reliant on the easy pleasures and prejudices of nationalism.
@Gareth: the top performing Far Right party got 0.5%. Hardly ate into SF or FFG’s support.
@9QRixo8H: brilliant piece of work by Simon Harris removing asylum seekers from ipo and canal area then sending 50 of them back to ni then cutting their money everyone fell for it his far right stance won the day
How come 26 EU countries, most of which held elections after us on Friday have their results done and dusted?
What is the hold up with Irish results?
Simon has the bit in his mouth now lol.
I really hope they do, could be the biggest blindside ever
We won’t go into power with fg we won’t call an early election
have your say