Abortion in Ireland

For the first time, Ireland will permit abortion in some circumstances. First, abortion is permitted when there is a real and substantial risk of loss of the woman’s life from a physical illness. (The law has special provisions regarding emergency situations.) Second, abortion is permitted when there is a real and substantial risk of loss of the woman's life by suicide. Two physicians need to attest to the risk of loss of life from physical illness; three to the risk from suicide. The law includes a conscience clause relieving any physician from participation in the procedure or the determinations relating to risk of loss of life. Text of the law is here. Context-giving coverage from the Guardian is here.

The new law is a baby-step compared to other countries' laws. There is still no provision for abortion in the case of rape or incest, or fetal anomaly; much less for abortion based on the woman's desire not to have a child. But the law is explicit in not limiting the woman's right to travel to obtain an abortion, leaving open the woman's option to travel to the UK for abortions not permitted under Irish law.    

New Jersey Nurses Sue to Avoid Abortion Care

The University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey recently and abruptly changed its conscientious objection policy to require nurses to provide care to hospital patients before and after they undergo abortion procedures. Previously, the University had permitted nurses to avoid caring for abortion patients at all, if they objected morally to abortion; but the new policy requires them to deliver pre- and post-operative care. Nurses are still free to decline to participate in, or to be present in the room during, the abortion procedure itself. A dozen nurses have sued to stop the implementation of the policy, and in November a judge granted a restraining order barring the hospital's training of nurses in pre- and post-operative abortion care until after its December 5 hearing on the case. Conscientious objection laws for healthcare providers are problematic, particularly if they reduce access to necessary medical services; but here there seems to be no question of the availability of the procedure. It seems to me that being required to take care of a pregnant mother just prior to her abortion, and then again just after it, is seriously offensive to a nurse who's morally opposed to abortion. If the nurses who feel strongly about this issue are a small minority of available nursing staff (which they seem to be), then I think the University ought to return to its previous, more sensitive, conscientious objection policy.