The Pro Life Campaign has strongly criticised the HSE for the “campaigning way” in which it presented before the Oireachtas Health Committee this morning, and for the manner in which it undermined the three-day waiting period before an abortion “without presenting any cogent evidence whatsoever to back up their claims.”
Commenting after the Health Committee concluded its hearings for this week on the three-day wait, Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign said:
“The HSE delegation couldn’t have been more political than they were in making their case today for abolishing the three-day wait. In claiming that there was ‘no clinical requirement for a mandatory three-day waiting period’, they sought to turn the debate into a medical and clinical one, but the reality is that the vast majority of abortions are carried out for socioeconomic reasons and 98% of abortions take place under the ground where no reason for the abortion has to be given.
“It is disingenuous, therefore, for the HSE representatives to seek to convey that whether the three-day wait stays or goes is a medical and clinical decision when it’s patently not. The real issue is: how many women went for their first abortion appointment and didn’t go ahead with the procedure after the three-day reflection period had elapsed?
“We know from the HSE’s own figures that between 2019–2024, over 10,000 women didn’t return after the reflection period, but rather than exploring how many of these women changed their minds and the reasons why, the HSE has produced no research or evidence to clarify these crucial questions.
“Yet, they came before the Oireachtas Health Committee this morning and presented in an overtly campaigning way for the removal of the three-day wait. The audacity of that is shocking, all the more so because women are contacting us every day to say that they benefited from the three-day wait and want it kept.
“How is it that the HSE has never consulted with or sought to examine the experiences of these women? The HSE added nothing but politics to the deliberations of the Health Committee this morning. It was another missed opportunity to genuinely hear from the women who have been most personally impacted by the three-day wait and decided to keep their babies.
“At least the HSE made one concession, when Fine Gael TD Peter Roche mentioned that supporters of removing the three-day wait say there is no other procedure in law carried out by medics where there is a mandatory waiting period. He suggested there might be a reason for that and asked the representatives of the HSE if they could name another procedure carried out by GPs whose purpose is to end a human life.
“The HSE representatives replied that no, they couldn’t. Deputy Roche’s question went right to the heart of what this whole debate is really about – life and death .”
ENDS