The Masters of Dublin's three maternity hospitals have said that abortion should be allowed in certain circumstances. They said that they believed a pregnant woman carrying a foetus that had no chance of survival outside the womb should be entitled to have an abortion in Ireland.
The Masters of the Coombe Hospital, the National Maternity Hospital and the Rotunda made the statement at a press conference where they urged a Yes vote in next week's referendum. In reply to journalists' questions, the Masters admitted they were speaking in a personal, and not an official, capacity.
The Government and opposition parties have differed in their interpretation of the doctors' statements.
Fine Gael's Alan Shatter said that the Masters' call for a Yes vote was incompatible with their own views, and that they should be calling for a No vote.
However the Minister for Health, Michael Martin said he did not agree that it was contradictory for the doctors to support a Yes vote while, at the same time, call for an extension of any abortion provision to cover women carrying a foetus with no chance of survival after birth.
Liz McManus said that the three Masters’ statements demonstrated that abortion was not a black and white issue. Labour’s Spokesperson for Health added that trying to deal with the issue through the Constitution was inappropriate.
The group Doctors for Choice said that the Masters’ position on pregnancies with severe foetal anomalies was inconsistent with their call for a Yes vote.
