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ENDA KENNY WAS very clear this week. Ireland’s abortion laws will not change because of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013, he said. There will be no new rights created. The Constitutional status quo will remain as is.
It was the aspect of the draft legislation that caught the attention of many international media organisations: “…The new bill, which will have to be passed in both houses of the Irish parliament, will not include cases concerning rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormalities,” wrote Henry McDonald in The Guardian.
The group campaigning for the rights of women who require terminations for medical reasons – TFMR – says its members are both heartbroken and angry at the omission. They believe the government has refused to “take this opportunity” to legislate for their needs.
“It is simply unacceptable in 2013 that families will continue to have to leave Ireland if they chose to end a pregnancy after being told by Irish doctors that their baby will not survive outside the womb,” it said in a statement.
And the Cabinet cannot claim ignorance of the issue.
“We have forsaken our privacy and shared our deepest losses and trauma with them,” according to a spokesperson.
Sarah Moylan is one such woman who has “gone public” about the devastating loss of her baby girl in the hope that “something will change” so other women will not go through the same trauma as her family did in 2009.
At the 26 week mark of her pregnancy, she was told of a late diagnosis of anencephaly – a disorder where a baby has little or no brain – by her doctors at an Irish maternity hospital. The consultant told her it is was a completely fatal diagnosis and there would be no chance of survival outside the womb.
The doctor also said she had two options – “under Irish Catholic law, continue to full term” or “travel elsewhere for delivery”.
“I was very big at that stage,” the 36-year-old told TheJournal.ie in a recent interview. “It was my first pregnancy, my first baby. The devastation of hearing all that. I travelled, like most women do. I could not bear to hear people asking me about the nursery, or locking myself away. I made the decision to go. I couldn’t go the other way.”
Molly Moylan was born on the 17 December 2009 in Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
Sarah and her husband John travelled by aeroplane to the city, where they were joined by Sarah’s Dad and John’s mother. They had taken the boat and ordered a cabin so the couple could attempt to sleep through the journey back.
Describing the trip, Sarah recalls people “coming and going for Christmas holidays”.
We had to leave our country, leave our care providers that we had been used to because they could do no more for us.
They were also not allowed to bring Molly’s body back with them. She remained in the hospital for the Christmas period and the family travelled back to Liverpool for her cremation the following month.
Ironically, we had a lovely Catholic service with a lovely priest. Her ashes were delivered back to us by courier.
A country turned its back
A number of women who have experienced similar journeys have told their stories to journalists and television presenters over the past 12 months as a campaign for change continues.
“The public are becoming more aware of it now,” says Sarah, but prior to a Late Late Show appearance last April the majority of people believed that women in these situations were “looked after here”.
Back in 2009, Sarah and John presumed they would go home and digest the tragic news before returning to the hospital to be induced and looked after. Instead, they were told they would be seen at 40 weeks.
Although the Moylans were advised about Liverpool Women’s Hospital, which sees about two or three Irish couples per week for medical terminations, some women in early gestation are routed to abortion clinics instead of “proper maternity hospitals”, according to TFMR.
“Not only are our hearts broken at the loss of our baby but we had to travel,” continues Sarah. “And now, we’re trying to get on with our lives but it is so difficult. We hope something will change and then there is disappointment when it doesn’t. It is difficult to get on with day-to-day life with this constantly in the pit of my stomach.
“I will never be the same. You’ll never get over it.”
‘This has to change’
Representatives of TFMR have met with a number of Cabinet members over the past year, most of whom were empathetic and compassionate to their tragedies and their losses. According to the group, the majority were initially unaware that the Irish Constitution blocked them from being looked after in their own country.
Other deputies and senators, as well as some pro-life groups, have mooted alternative options including perinatal hospices. The idea horrifies Sarah.
“How or where is a perinatal hospice going to help my family? Why would anyone want me to grow a baby to suffer and die? Why? All we can go by now is what doctors tells us. The first thing they told me is that she will not survive outside the womb. It is heartbreaking and upsetting that the likes of those people would bring up a perinatal hospice.
It is barbaric to women. It is downright cruel to throw around that terminology.
As the constant debate about terminations in medical emergencies, terminations in the case of suicide ideation and a wider abortion regime continues to circle in Leinster House and beyond, families such as the Moylans live with “a constant cloud” over their heads.
It is hard to switch off. It is hard to not be sad again.
“We are educating people. Ours is a very specific, very heartbreaking, very clear-cut case,” adds Sarah. “Hopefully those making the decisions will get more of an understanding.”
TMFR says it will march on in its fight for legislation that will protect women in similar situations. They have also called for the repeal of Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution.
“We will not stop fighting for change. This unnecessary added cruelty of forcing women out of their country to seek treatment at a time when they are already experiencing the greatest loss of their lives must end.”
Sarah, who is now the proud mum of 20-month old Dara, says meeting some of her fellow mothers at support groups is “like looking in the mirror”.
They are raw, broken and still in shock.
“We’re seeing this all the time. People say these cases are rare but Ireland has one of the highest incidences of anencephaly and those babies will not survive.
“I keep going…to feel a bit of justification that, my god, other women will not go through hell like we did and our parents did, heartbroken watching their daughter deliver a baby in another country. This has to change.”
TFMR continues to meet and offer support to women whose babies have been diagnosed with fatal foetal abnormalities. The group’s website can be found here. They be reached by email: tfmrireland@gmail.com. Support group Leanbh mo Chroi can also be found on Facebook, or contacted by email at leanbhmochroi@gmail.com or by telephone on 086 747 4746.
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….is this another incident they will “learn” from?
Accountability HAS to be an election issue.
No no. It’s all ok now. They said sorry. So leave them alone and let them get on with ignoring other kids in their care.
No such thing, Accountability is a dirty word.
As someone who works in the Hse I can tell first hand that complaints upon staff from other staff members is something no one wants to deal with, there are people with many complaints against them with many knowing and seeing first hand they are true yet after the big Hse investigation the people still remain in their post in the exact same roll, I actually had myself transferred to another place to get away from the lack of management and pussy footing around dealing with staff properly best move I ever made
If the HSE is ever to be reformed then the only way to do it is to appoint an independent professional who is assessed and signed off on by ALL parties. This professional is then given the task of reforming the management and running the HSE. They are given a set timeframe and targets. They are then allowed to cull the dead wastage that pervades the HSE on the administration side and use the savings to improve the healthcare side of things. They will have the advantage of not worrying about getting re-elected as their role is to reach their targets and if that means making unpopular decisions then so be it. If they are appointed by an all party committee then none of the usual blame games can erupt as all parties will have made the decision to appoint the person.
The HSE employs 100,000 people and I would bet that you could get rid of 10% of them tomorrow morning and nothing would be disrupted, that’s how useless their roles are.
@Brian Ward
You can blame the Labour party for the lack of radical reform in the Irish health service.
All of the health service unions are responsible for the predicament of the health service, not just the ones that represent administrators. The following article was written by GP Dr Brendan O’Shea.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/nurses-must-allow-trolleys-on-wards-34351707.html
“I believe the nurses are wrong in trying to frustrate it and there is a sense they are playing silly industrial relations games.
It should be part of any escalation procedures to alleviate the pressure when trolley traffic reaches a certain crisis.
Any attempts to obstruct it are akin to terrorists hiding themselves among unfortunate hostages.
Just like in bus disputes where passengers end up being kicked around, it is now the turn of the patient.
Doctors’ unions are also guilty of this when the occasion arises.”
HSE never apologise and never learn. The incompetence and mismanagement are a disgrace. The government is a disgrace. From personal experience in 2007 in regards to portlaoise.
The wasters at the hse strike again . I wonder do any of these people ly awake at night worrying about the way people are left on trolleys and treated like animals . I think not !!!!!
Senior management have had 30% salary increases since 2012, I’d say that’s all they think about, period.
I know many foster parents who are living saints. The social workers they were assigned were dreadful in general. I mean gobsmackingly awful to the level of being dangerous. That’s why the very few bad foster homes can exist.
How many more similar cases are out there? It truly is shameful. We do have very good people e.g. the social worker and the whistleblower, trying to protect and stand up for such vulnerable people. Let us not lose sight of that.
@Mary Scanlon
I couldn’t agree more. If HSE employees were aware that vulnerable people were at risk and failed to take appropriate action then I hope that they will be crucified.
The public disservice.
Who gets sacked ? Nobody.
Carry on as normal.
Its the irish way….we are too accepting of incompetence from our politicians to our civil servants….never any accountability
Dead right D H. Buck stops nowhere in the Land of Saints and Scholars.
Yet another shameful indictment of the so called ‘establishment in this country. This news predates the HSE so there are many Health Boards, Ministers for Health and others responsible for ignoring what was going. on. The first report was made in 1995 which predates the HSE by 10 years. They are all equally responsible but of course in this country very few have to take responsibility for their actions or are held accountable.
In any other jurisdiction’ heads would roll’ with resignations, removal from posts etc. Apologies are useless and worthless as can be seen by the same ‘mistakes’ being made over and over again. Time for those responsible to be made face the consequences.
In recent times we have had politician after politician tell us how much they care for those who suffer abuse. Yet again their mealy mouthed words are shown up to be hypocritical. Time for them too to walk the walk.
Justine McCarthy wrote about this case for this week’s edition of The Sunday Times.
According to her, the DPP decided not to press charges in relation to five garda files dealing with alleged negligence and abuse in the home and one of the foster parents allegedly committed sexual assault and rape with the use of instruments (the foster father, I assume) is deceased.
I commend the social worker who blew the whistle.
Sadly, some members of staff of the health boards didn’t care about children who were neglected and sexually abused by one or both of their parents, i.e. the Kilkenny and Roscommon incest and McColgan family cases.
In the Roscommon incest case, the members of health board staff who were involved in that case could have appealed against the injunction that the mother had obtained (the evidence of neglect was as clear as a summer’s day) but they didn’t bother.
In the Roscommon case, an ultra right wing Catholic group funded an expensive legal challenge and obrptiained an injunction. The local health Board did not have the legal budget to appeal.
It’s dangerous when extremely well funded religious extremists can use lawyers to frustrate necessary interventions in very serious rape and incest cases. I’m pleased to say that a book is being written about this dreadful scandal, exposing the details but not the identities. The book includes details of the financial funding. Keep the religious extremists out of the social servuces area. Ideology causes terrible problems.
@Fiona deFreyne
The health board could have allocated money to its legal budget to appeal on the grounds of what was then Article 42.5 of the Constitution, which permitted the removal of children from parents if the parents fail in their duty. Given that the health board was supposed to protect the vulnerable, taking legal action to protect the vulnerable should have been a priority.
The health board could have informed the Gardaí of the neglect. Then the Gardaí could have arrested the parents for child neglect and that would have provided grounds for taking the children into care. Child neglect is a criminal offence, you know.
Stop making excuses for health board members of staff who didn’t do their jobs properly.
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