Dear Editor,
I’d like to echo Dr Ruairi Hanley’s call for a referendum on the introduction of abortion facilities in Ireland, broadly similar to those in the UK (‘Addressing the great taboo’, IMT, September 10, see www.imt.ie/opinion/2010/09/addressing-the-great-taboo.html).
This would make a big difference to the rising problem of illegal abortion in Ireland. It would also make a huge difference to Irish obstetricians who have to cope with the extraordinary difficulty of not being able to provide termination on clinical and social grounds here in our own hospitals.
I hope that the medical community will continue to provide a strong voice to advocate for a modernisation of our reproductive laws in Ireland.
I also feel that research into the growing problem of illegal abortion would be a useful tool in assessing this need for legal change from a clinical point of view, because until now illegal abortion in Ireland has not been well documented and it remains a secret and covered-up problem with severe clinical consequences.
The maternity and emergency departments should be encouraged and provided with adequate funding to explore this cause of maternal morbidity and mortality as a matter of urgency.
Dr Juliet Bressan,
Amiens St,
Dublin 1
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