A Catholic hospital in Dublin has announced it will be the first in Ireland to do abortions following passage of a new law opening the door to legalized abortions. Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, a Catholic hospital in Dublin, says it will comply with the new Irish law that permits abortion in some circumstances.
The decision comes
after a report, eventually withdrawn, claiming the first abortion had been done under the new law.
“The hospital’s priority is to be at the frontier of compassion, concern and clinical care for all our patients,” the hospital said in a statement, as reported by the Press Association. “Having regard to that duty, the hospital will comply with the law as provided for in the act.”
Under the law there are 25 “appropriate institutions,” including Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, where abortions are expected to take place and taxpayer-funded hospitals are expected to comply with the new law.
Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro Life Campaign said: “It is very disappointing to hear that the Mater Hospital is going to carry out abortions. The decision is completely at odds with the hospital’s stated ethos of cherishing the value and dignity of every human life. The Government’s legislation is not only unethical in forcing doctors to perform abortions, it also ignores all the peer reviewed evidence showing that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal feelings.
She told LifeNews: “The board of the Mater hospital should have made it clear to the Government that it was not prepared to introduce a regime that would not only end the lives of unborn babies but will also put the lives of women at risk given the negative consequences of abortion. It is a tragedy that no institution so far has had the courage to stand up to the Government on this point and challenge them to produce the evidence that induced abortion saves women’s lives and has no adverse consequences for women.”
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The confirmation follows claims last month from one of the hospital’s board of governors that it could not follow the law because of its Catholic ethos.
Fr Kevin Doran, based in Donnybrook in Dublin, had argued European regulations could allow the hospital to opt out of the new laws.
The Mater Hospital was f ounded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1861. It is now run as a private company, mostly owned by the same religious order as well as the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, the Catholic Nurses Guild of Ireland, the Society of St Vincent de Paul and medical consultants.
Another of the 25 hospitals named in the law as an “appropriate institution” for an abortion to be carried out to save the life of a pregnant woman is the Catholic-run St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin, part-owned by the Sisters of Charity.
The hospital has already confirmed it will follow ” the law of the land”.
