Climate Of Fear

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Amelia Gentleman, in The Guardian, reports:

Medical staff in Northern Ireland are operating in a “climate of fear”, worried about the threat of imprisonment if they offer advice to women seeking an abortion, healthcare leaders have said.

The number of legal abortions being carried out in Northern Ireland has halved in the past two years because doctors and midwives have been so alarmed by punitive draft guidelines, which state that healthcare workers risk life imprisonment for performing an unlawful abortion.

Hospital doctors, midwives and GPs all said they found it particularly difficult when women who were having a miscarriage after taking abortion pills bought online came to seek their advice, because of pressure to report anyone who has illegally procured an abortion.

One doctor (who asked not to be named because of the uncertain legal situation) recounted the unease he felt when a woman told him she had taken these pills. “It put me in an illegal position because, in the letter of the law, I should report. Obviously, I’m not going to do that, but this is the sort of problem you get,” he said.

Northern Ireland medics fear prison over abortion advice (Amelia Gentleman, The Guardian)

Previously: Illegal Abortion In Ireland

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15 thoughts on “Climate Of Fear

    1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

      Stormont looks masculine to me. That’s the problem. Micky buildings engender anti-wimmin bias.

      Happy new year, Clampy-poos!

  1. newsjustin

    “It put me in an illegal position because, in the letter of the law, I should report. Obviously, I’m not going to do that, but this is the sort of problem you get,” he said.

    Why isn’t he/she going to report it? Why is not reporting this an “obvious” conclusion?

      1. newsjustin

        So should we all go easy on the old “reporting crimes” if we’re not sure the law has it right? Just let things slide, eh? Pretend nothing is happening.

    1. Stewart Curry

      Maybe he’s worried that by reporting these women to the police other women will be too afraid to seek medical help and die?

      1. newsjustin

        Maybe. The opposite might also apply. By speaking/reporting about the legal, not to mention health implications of taking Internet abortion pills, it may reduce the number of people who do so.

        1. Dόn Pídgéόní

          If only women could take such pills under the guidance of qualified medical professionals. Wouldn’t that be something?

    2. Lorcan Nagle

      “An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law”
      ― Martin Luther King Jr.

      1. sǝɯǝɯʇɐpɐq

        Yeah, but…
        You’re confusing ‘ideology’ with ‘actualogy’.

        (As if ‘ideology’ was real word..)

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