I recall talking to someone whose wife had recently experienced an emergency during pregnancy.

Admitted under her gynaecologist in a very well regarded religious-ethos hospital, she was in a serious condition and needed an emergency termination. A member of medical staff pulled the husband aside and advised him, in an undertone, to seek a transfer to another hospital in another part of the country, immediately, because he could not guarantee that she’d be given the lifesaving treatment she needed in this hospital, because of its religious ethos. She was transferred to a hospital three hours away by ambulance, and, after being treated as required, made a full recovery.

My friend thought this legislation would make that situation a thing of the past, but he was wrong.

We’re back to a situation where a woman who is pregnant – and has the money to choose where she is treated – will have to spend some time researching the religious ‘ethos’ of her hospital and even her doctor to ensure that she will be treated in accordance with the law. If – like most of us – she doesn’t have a choice about where she’s treated, a few decades of the Rosary might be advisable instead.

No Mater what (Deirdre O’Shaughnessy, Cork Independent)

Previously: “Would He Prefer For Both Of Them To Die?”

Nothing Really Maters

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)