“You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” is the attitude – as if people who bring up difficulties are nagging or ungrateful. But the ownership and governance of the new national maternity home is too important for present and future generations of women to let plans pass without examination.
Irish women have campaigned for reproductive rights for decades – a feat that has been fiercely opposed by powerful interest groups. These rights have been hard won but are not taken for granted, as evidenced by the heated campaign to repeal abortion legislation in the US; Within weeks, abortion could be criminalized in certain states with up to 10 years in prison.
Here, legal abortion has only been enshrined in the law books since 2019, after the population voted in favor of it with a two-thirds majority in a referendum. That should have ended the forbidding landscape where women don’t control their own bodies, but that’s not the case.
Legalizing reproductive rights is one thing, ensuring access to safe abortion services is quite another. There are gaps in service delivery. Of the 19 publicly funded hospitals that are supposed to be offering abortions, only 10 do – nine don’t.
Some say there is a lack of theater capacity, but this may not be the reason in all cases. When it comes to GPs who might offer abortion services like pills, only one in ten do so – meaning nine out of ten do not. While some are conscientious objectors, others are afraid of pro-life activists targeting them.
Data shared by the HSE with the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) shows that half of all districts have fewer than 10 GPs providing the service. In fact, only four out of 26 counties have a well-developed community network of providers – Dublin, Cork, Wicklow and Galway. “Thus, while abortion providers are highly committed, limited coverage presents a significant barrier to access,” says NWCI Director Orla O’Connor.
In its recent address to the Oireachtas Health Committee, the NWCI highlighted the “very small number of community and hospital providers” which “reflects a tacit refusal to provide abortion treatments”. Council is asking for data collection as part of a review of abortion services.
What does this have to do with the dispute over the national maternity hospital (NMH)? It reminds that the hospital must be publicly owned – this is the best guarantee that women’s reproductive rights are protected.
People fear the possibility of religious interference. Why? Because past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.
Union leader Ivana Bacik says there are concerns “about the continuing ethos of the Sisters of Charity” if the hospital is co-located with the St Vincent site in Dublin. In addition, Dr. Peter Boylan concerns that the term ‘clinically appropriate’ is used in the NMH’s working document to qualify any obligation to provide all medical treatment to women, including abortion.
It boils down to a question of trust. Given the state’s track record, we cannot assume anything in good faith when it comes to women’s reproductive health. This is not to question the credibility of anyone supporting or associated with the co-location initiative. But we have to do it right.
Extending the lease to 299 years and providing the Secretary of Health with a gold share to prevent a reduction in independence are all well and good, but these measures are not enough. The state is spending 1 billion euros on this project – a huge investment. How does it benefit us not to be the absolute and undeniable owners?
Circumstances are changing, as evidenced in the US with moves to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling that decriminalized abortion services. Republicans have spent decades striving for it. Anti-abortion lobbyists are looking to the future—so must pro-choice activists.
Ms O’Connor said: “It is our duty to ensure going forward that we take the best precautions – we can never take women’s reproductive rights for granted. That can change at any time. As this is a new hospital there is now an opportunity to do it right.”
Consider what happened during the pandemic, when individual hospitals applied different rules no matter what government officials said. In the interests of patient safety, maternity hospitals imposed restrictions on partners attending scans or during labor and delivery. Even as Stephen Donnelly and Tony Holohan said the restrictions should now be lifted, some hospitals remained in place. Surely this recent experience strengthens the case for public ownership of the new hospital?
St Vincent’s Holdings CLG, the non-profit organization to which the religious order has transferred ownership, insists: “Bespoke governance arrangements protect the clinical, operational and financial independence of the new maternity home, which will have its own separate service agreement with the HSE . Any suggestion that the way SV CLG was formed was a bit “murky” is disingenuous.”
But it’s not a question of dullness. It’s a matter of once bitten – make bitten twice – shy twice. dr Boylan suggests that the new hospital should list the procedures it will offer and include the phrase “and any other procedures that may become permitted by law in the future.” What’s wrong with that?
It eliminates any possible ambiguity. As Ms. Bacik says, “We need to ensure that all the necessary treatments that women need for our reproductive health care are provided at the new hospital and that there are no restrictive words that could limit the availability of necessary medical treatments at the hospital.”
Stephen Donnelly appears to have made a rather clumsy attempt to get the NMH project through Cabinet this week but was delayed by challenges from ministers who naturally wanted time to read the documentation. You have done the state a service.
The cabinet will take up the matter again in the week after next, but ministers – of both sexes – should give serious thought to a forced purchase of the country. What price peace of mind?
https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/better-safe-than-sorry-we-must-put-new-maternity-hospital-into-public-ownership-41618928.html Better safe than sorry – we need to make the new maternity hospital public property
