A government report into abortion in Ireland has confirmed that some babies are left alive after abortions in the country.
Some abortions in Ireland do result in the baby being born alive, a review into Ireland’s abortion system and corresponding legislation published on Wednesday has confirmed.
It comes after an academic paper published back in 2020 revealed that some babies were being born in Ireland after being aborted, sometimes resulting in infighting amongst medical staff with conflicting views over what to do in such a situation.
According to the government document published on Wednesday, the review into Ireland’s abortion system has indeed confirmed the paper’s claims that some terminations do indeed result in the baby involved being born alive, sometimes resulting in conflict amongst medical staff involved in the procedure.
Though the report describes palliative care for such children as “essential”, it notes that some professionals in the pediatric field in the country have been hesitant to provide their services in such an emergency scenario, seemingly out of ethical concerns over the abortion procedure itself.
This in turn has reportedly resulted in some consultants involved in abortion practices feeling “under pressure to advise administration of foeticide in cases where they may have deemed it unnecessary” should the necessary end-of-life support for the child be in place.
“Some participants also stated that foeticide can be perceived as the only option if appropriate palliative care is not going to be provided by neonatologists or paediatricians,” the report went on to read. “A lack of supportive management and peers can add to the psychological burden.”
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Such revelations come at a time when politicians in Ireland are pushing to have the country’s abortion laws further liberalised.
Only legalised in the country after a highly contentious referendum in 2018, progressive ministers and activists on the island are now demanding that some of the more conservative elements within legislation — such as a three-day minimum waiting time before accessing termination drugs — be axed.
These reforms have been backed by a number of those within the government’s cabinet, including pro-abortion and pro-transgenderism Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman.
“He has no concerns about the report,” a spokesman for O’Gorman said. “He campaigned for repeal[ing Ireland’s abortion ban], and would support the removal of the three-day waiting period.”
The country’s push to see termination procedures further liberalised stands in stark contrast with what is happening in the United States, where legislatures are keen to restrict or outright ban abortions.
Such a shift, though largely sparked by the repeal of Roe v. Wade by the American Supreme Court, has likely been aided by recent reporting on the treatment of babies subjected to termination procedures, with one report late last year finding that at least 34 babies were born alive after a botched termination.
It is unclear what happened to the children born this way, with one report staying that individual U.S. states do not record “whether the babies received care, survived or were abandoned to die”.
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— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 10, 2023