Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD challenged the Minister for Health in a recent parliamentary question over the suspension of all state funding to agencies that support women during an unplanned pregnancy but refuse to facilitate abortion.
In their reply to Deputy Tóibín, the HSE admitted they “changed the model of service delivery” in line with the introduction of abortion and as a result of that “some services were unable to operate in that framework due to their ethos.”
To translate it simply, the HSE is really saying: after abortion was legalised, we cut off all groups that refused to comply with our pro-abortion stance, no matter how valuable their services were for women facing an unplanned pregnancy.
It should be noted that the people voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment, not for wide-ranging abortion, and certainly not to defund groups with a proven record of helping women through unplanned pregnancies.
This week’s HSE admission confirms the government’s single-minded focus on promoting abortion and sheds light on the sharp rise in abortions since the law changed. With the HSE now openly admitting the bias in its unplanned pregnancy policy, pressure must continue for a complete overhaul of what constitutes “service delivery” in this area.
A number of months back, Independent TD Carol Nolan received a similar reply from the HSE to the one Deputy Tóibín was just sent. By shutting out options other than abortion, the HSE is harming women and unborn babies alike. The ideology driving all this also needs to be exposed and opposed.
