Pro-life campaigners have warned of potential "deadly risks" to women if a controversial abortion provider is allowed to operate in Ireland.
Marie Stopes International (MSI) has revealed that it is considering plans to expand its services from the UK if the Eighth Amendment to the constitution is repealed following the May referendum.
But the world’s oldest pro-life group, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) says the organisation’s "shocking" record in the UK should prevent the authorities from allowing MSI ever to open for business in Ireland.
Liam Gibson, SPUC’s Northern Ireland Development Officer, said the UK’s Care Quality Commission has published a catalogue of damning reports in recent years exposing a litany of failings at MSI clinics.
Revelations have included how:
- the bodies of foetuses were thrown into bins
- 400 botched abortions were carried out in a two month period
The most recent report in October 2017 on a clinic in Maidstone, Kent, detailed a series of abuses and safety violations which were revealed in addition to the exposure of a ‘culture that worked against patient choice’.
Staff were paid bonuses for encouraging women to go through with procedures. One staff member, who described it as 'feeling like a hamster in a wheel', said the words 'cattle market' were used frequently.
The report followed a previous CQC finding of 2600 safety failings in Marie Stopes clinics in December 2016, and a follow up report saying that Marie Stopes sent 11 women to hospital in 3 months.
There were also stunning revelations of 400 botched abortions in a two month period.
Mr Gibson said: "Is this the kind of future that a humane and caring Ireland really wants to vote for? The electorate should be well aware of the kind of shocking abuses carried out by the abortion industry in the UK before they head to the ballot box.
"Lessons are there to be learned of the deadly risks women are exposed to. The independent evidence of the CQC should open the eyes of ordinary men and women to the horrific nature of what the abortion industry is all about and the lengths they will go to to make profits from the deaths of innocent unborn babies while putting the health of their mothers in jeopardy."
Thousands of concerned citizens signed a petition calling on the UK’s Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to strip Marie Stopes of its abortion licence in the wake of the scandalous practices being revealed.
A newspaper report also revealed that MSI - the UK’s second largest abortion provider - has been approving thousands of abortions without meeting women, with some discussions of the reason for the abortion lasting as little as 22 seconds.
It was also reported that the organisation has been signing off abortions following short telephone conversations, without the woman seeing the two doctors who authorise the abortion.
Undercover reporters also allege that following a telephone consultation, the official note of the woman’s reason for having the abortion was completely different from what she had said on the phone.
Mr Gibson said:
"Marie Stopes has been exposed for behaving shamefully in breach of the law. It is time these matters were dealt with by the prosecuting authorities to allow the criminal courts to become involved.
"Voters have to ask themselves: ‘Is this what the people of Ireland wish to be visited upon their country if they vote to repeal the eighth?"
Emphasising the risk to women’s health, Mr Gibson said that women who have an abortion experience mental health problems 30% more often compared with women who give birth, and that a study has shown that the risk of suicide is approximately six times greater after an abortion than after childbirth.
Mr Gibson added: "The abortion industry regularly and without impunity makes a mockery of the law. Recent Care Quality Commission reports have detailed quite horrific criticisms of Marie Stopes."
"MSI had to suspend abortions after it was condemned by the CQC for putting women at risk by failing to adequately train staff and neglecting to obtain the required consent from the woman.
"MSI was also condemned for throwing the bodies of aborted babies into open bins."
Mr Gibson said: "The CQC findings prove there is an inherent lack of care for women on the part of an abortion industry which chases profit, much of it provided by the taxpayer through NHS funds.
"There is clearly a complete disregard both for the law and for human life."
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