Cathal Barry
Health officials say they are considering the case of a woman who went from Northern Ireland to England for an abortion because she was told her baby had no chance of survival
Pro-life groups in the North are calling on the executive to develop perinatal hospice services as a matter of urgency.
It comes as senior health officials say they are considering the case of a woman who went from Northern Ireland to England for an abortion because she was told her baby had no chance of survival.
The woman had contacted the BBC’s Nolan Show to highlight her experience.
As in the Republic, foetal abnormality is not a ground for abortion in the North.
“My only choice basically was to carry the baby either until it passed away inside me or I could deliver and it would pass away,” the woman, known by the pseudonym Sarah, told the BBC.
Health Minister Edwin Poots said he had asked his officials to consider the case to ensure “everything has been done that we would expect to be done, within the confines of the legal position that exists in Northern Ireland”.
Responding to the case, Precious Life, the North’s leading pro-life organisation said “Sarah received no help or information on coping with this difficult situation, and tragically she choose to go to London, with the BBC, to have her baby aborted.
“The Department of Health and medical professionals in Northern Ireland have failed Sarah, and may be failing other women in similar circumstances,” the group said in a statement.
Precious Life said “parents in these difficult situations deserve much more than our sympathy – they need a professional support system in place, which will provide them with help, support and resources”.
The group has now written to Minister Poots urging him to establish perinatal hospice services immediately.
“We believe that if proper perinatal hospice services had been in place, she would not have felt abortion was the answer to the sad news that her baby would not live after birth,” Precious Life said.
Perinatal hospice care supports parents of children expected to die soon after birth. It offers nurses, chaplains, neonatologists, social workers, bereavement counsellors and even a photographer to capture brief moments.
