Doctors for Life are greatly saddened to hear of the abortion of a healthy baby on disability grounds at the National Maternal Hospital, Holles Street. Our thoughts go to the parents and family who must be experiencing unimaginable grief. We hope they are receiving appropriate medical care and support at this difficult time.

No medical test is ever 100% accurate, every investigation has an inherent sensitivity and specificity. There are always false positive and false negative medical test results and there are always patients who defy the odds. Every baby deserves a chance at life whether disabled or otherwise. Babies born with life limiting conditions deserve the benefit of perinatal palliative care, where the medical team will neither hasten nor hinder death, but instead allow nature take its course supporting the mother and her baby with care and compassion to the natural end.

We call on our government to amend the Health Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Act 2018 to prevent abortion on grounds of disability and to provide resources for perinatal palliative care.

Dr Deirdre Gleeson
Chairperson of Doctors for Life Ireland