By Katie Ascough - 13 November, 2019
The HSE recently sent instructions to healthcare professionals notifying them about the shortcomings of foetal anomaly testing and stating that pregnant women should be informed about these limitations. The HSE notification was prompted after a baby was aborted earlier this year in the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street and it was afterwards discovered that test results turned out to be incorrect.
Commenting on the latest instruction from the HSE, Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign (PLC) said: “The recent instruction from the HSE obligating medical staff to inform pregnant women about the limitations of foetal anomaly tests has regrettably come too late for at least one baby who had his or her life ended as a direct result of a misdiagnosis in Holles Street. There are likely many other similar cases that are not known about.”
Mulroy pointed out that the HSE has not only recently stumbled across the information that is contained in their latest instruction to doctors, but that this information was widely available long before now. “During last year’s abortion referendum, there was a pervading arrogance and dismissive attitude on the part of some doctors towards the many parents who went public about their experiences of receiving a misdiagnosis for their child and about the appalling treatment some of them received from medics when they got the news that their unborn baby might have a debilitating or life limiting condition,” Mulroy added.
The PLC urgently calls for open debate about the limitations of prenatal diagnosis and the way parents are treated when they receive the devastating news that their unborn baby might have a serious medical condition. “Anything that challenges the new abortion regime, even in the remotest sense, is ruled out of order by those in power. And we have a government at present that only engages with those who support abortion and that refuses to listen to the experiences of those who have different, sometimes deeply harrowing, stories to tell. The sad result of all this is that more lives will be lost that could otherwise have been saved,” Eilís Mulroy of the Pro Life Campaign (PLC) stated.
“But as the reality as opposed to the illusion of the new abortion law becomes better known, I am confident more and more people will start to question it. That day is some way off, but I believe it will be much sooner than some people think,” Mulroy concluded.
