Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 50:

In page 16, between lines 4 and 5, to insert the following:“(3) Medical practitioners who refuse to carry out a procedure for the procurement of an abortion on the basis of conscientious objection must notify the Minister for Health in writing within 28 days of the decision being taken.

(4) No corporate body or institution in receipt of public monies may refuse to carry out a procedure in order to procure an abortion on the basis of conscientious objection.”.

I tabled the amendment despite the issue of conscientious objection being covered in other amendments because I wanted specifically placed on record the point that publicly-funded institutions cannot use any loophole relating to the moral ethos of the organisation in question to circumvent the legislation. The United Nations has explicitly confirmed that the relevant regulatory framework must ensure an obligation on healthcare providers to refer women to alternative health providers and must not allow institutional referral of care.

While I understand the need to allow for personal conscientious objections, it must be done in a way that means that conscientious refusals do not lead to access barriers for women in accessing the healthcare to which they are entitled. My amendment stems from a concern that where a publicly funded institution is under the effective control of a religious organisation with a particular ethos, medical practitioners could effectively be advised not to agree to provide this healthcare within their working arrangements within the institution. This could potentially lead to a situation whereby medical practitioners who potentially do not have a conscientious objection to carrying out the procedure could find themselves refusing to carry out the procedure as part of their public health work while simultaneously offering patients appointments in their private clinics to perform procedures.

Such a possibility is not merely conjecture. A similar situation was referred to earlier this evening; abortion services in Italy were pushed almost exclusively into the private medical sector by way of institutional objections. With this amendment to the Bill we can ensure that no such situation arises in Ireland and that institutions are under no illusion as to the fact that legislation takes precedence over their ethos. The amendment will ensure that all patients can access this healthcare procedure via the public health system as intended by the Bill. Indeed, when this issue was debated at committee we wanted to ensure that this would be part of the public system and be GP-led or provided in public hospitals. This amendment seeks to provide for that.

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