Top of the league in maternal care
The recent ruling on abortion from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) missed an excellent opportunity to clarify some aspects of this complex issue.
I had hoped that the ECHR would have a particular interest in safeguarding the right to life of every human being regardless of age, ability or social status. As a woman, however, I am particularly disappointed that the court failed to commend the Irish medical profession for its excellent record in the area of maternal health.
The most recent independent study, carried out earlier this year, found once again that Ireland ranks among the safest countries in the world in which to be pregnant.
Women are better cared for in Ireland than in countries like Britain or Holland, where abortion is freely available.
To suggest otherwise, or to claim that the availability of abortion would somehow improve the health of Irish women, is simply not true.
It flies in the face of international evidence which shows that abortion has a detrimental effect on the psychological and emotional well-being of the woman in question and ignores the fact that today in Ireland, pregnant women receive whatever medical treatment they need.
So let's have an honest and open debate on abortion. Let's give our medical profession the recognition and legal protection that it deserves for the excellent care that it gives to Irish women and their babies.
And let's ensure that the official statistics are so well known by every Irish woman that she will feel entirely comfortable during her pregnancy, secure in the knowledge that she is being looked after by the world leader in the field.
Cora Sherlock
Blackrock, Co Dublin
Irish Independent
