National people’s campaign launching later this week says reports are distressing

Together for Yes, the national people’s campaign to remove the Eighth Amendment, has highlighted its deep concern at reports that a UK hospital has scaled back services to Irish women in cases of fatal foetal anomaly.

It is reported today that the Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, one of the main hospitals in the UK offering abortion services to women from Ireland with a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality, has restricted access for terminations to women between 16 and 20 weeks, due to staffing issues.  

Sarah Monaghan, spokesperson for Together for Yes said: “This situation is extremely concerning. It is further evidence that we in Ireland are overly-dependant on the UK to solve our abortion issues. We need to be realistic – relying on other jurisdictions which have their own service delivery issues and their own pressures isn’t sustainable. This is now impacting in a very palpable way on women trying to cope with devastating news about their pregnancy.

“We can’t have a situation whereby women dealing with a fatal foetal anomaly are being turned away by a clinic, and their midwives are ringing around clinics to see where they can be helped. This isn’t how we should be treating women in Ireland.

“Put simply, we shouldn’t be in this situation – we should be providing this care in Ireland for women in Ireland. Women seeking abortion services need support from their doctors and families, but instead the Eighth Amendment is forcing them into distressing situations which are compounding already difficult experiences. The Eighth Amendment is causing harm to our women and it needs to go.”