By Antonia Tully

Only 37% of Irish GPs would not give a woman abortion pills

Over 18 months on from the referendum in the Republic of Ireland in May 2018, a new study concludes that any remaining opposition to the provision of abortion must be eliminated.

The recently published study, ‘Knowledge and attitudes of Irish GPs towards abortion following its legalisation: a cross-sectional study’, is the first study of its kind, according to the authors. It is clear that the aim of the study is to find what level of resistance to abortion still exists among Ireland’s GPs and what needs to be done to wipe out any reluctance to killing unborn babies.

Ireland’s extreme abortion legislation, which came into effect in January of this year, includes:

• Abortion for any reason up to 12 weeks.
• After 12 weeks, abortion is permitted is there is a risk to the life or the health of the woman.
• After 12 weeks, if the foetus has a condition likely to lead to death either before birth or within 28 days of birth.

Ireland’s unborn babies are now utterly worthless in the eyes of the law. Unborn Irish children can be killed for any reason whatsoever up to 12 weeks, and if an unborn Irish baby has a disability, he or she stands even less chance of being born

The vision for abortion provision in Ireland is that the majority of abortions will be so-called ‘medical’ abortions, (that is, by providing abortion pills rather than surgery). And that abortion pills will be administered from a GP practice, before the unborn baby is 12 weeks old. Hence the total lack of restriction on abortion up to 12 weeks.

So what did the researchers find? The key question was; how willing are GPs to prescribe the deadly pills to their patients?

• 29.9% said they would.
• 37.0% said they wouldn’t.
• 15.0% were unsure.
• 18.1% would in some circumstances.

So, according to this study, only 37% of GPs stated outright that they were unwilling to end the lives of their unseen, unborn patients. This was viewed by the researchers from the University of Limerick as ‘a considerable level’ of unwillingness on the part of the 127 GPs who responded to the questionnaire which was sent to 222 GPs associated with the University.

From a pro-life perspective, if this study has been properly conducted, this is a pitiful result coming from GPs living in a country where the constitution had given equal protection to unborn babies and their mothers for 36 years. The betrayal of Ireland’s unborn babies, according to the results of this study, had clearly begun long before the referendum.

The odds appear to be heavily stacked against Ireland’s unborn babies as indeed they are against those Irish GPs with a genuine ethical objection to abortion. Asked in the survey if those doctors with a conscientious objection to abortion should be obliged to refer a woman to a doctor who would supply abortion pills, the resounding response (72.4%) was yes they should.

This is the way the architects of the culture of death work.  No one really escapes. If you are forced to refer a woman to a doctor who will kill her baby, you are involved in the killing.

The drive to bring Ireland’s GPs up to speed on abortion provision is underway.  The ‘immediate implications’ of the study, according to the researchers, is a need for ‘education courses’ for GPs.

Will this education include a thorough and comprehensive study of the research on the impact of abortion pills on women’s health? Or will it just be abortion pill propaganda? We hardly dare hope that any consideration will be given to what it does to a nation when its unborn citizens are slaughtered indiscriminately before birth. Abortion impoverishes everyone by devaluing human life itself.