By LifeZine
Editor’s note. LifeZine is a publication of the Irish Family & Life Organization, a leading Irish pro-life organization

Irish Minister for Health James Reilly
Ireland’s abortion law came into effect on January 1, but doctors are refusing to [put the law into operation] due to the absence of promised clinical guidelines. Minister for Health James Reilly signed the order to make the Act operational just before Christmas. This was despite the fact that the committee he appointed to draw up guidelines has not yet reported.
The College of Psychiatrists has advised its members not to participate in review panels for abortion in the absence of clinical guidelines from the Department of Health. The professional body for psychiatrists in Ireland described the enactment of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act without clinical guidelines as “very haphazard and unsatisfactory”.
A “Guidelines on Implementation Committee” was appointed last year by the Department of Health to draw up clinical guidelines on how the legislation would work in practice. It includes representatives from the department, the HSE, the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Physicians as well as experts in cardiology and oncology. It has yet to report.
Minister Reilly tried to blame doctors for the confusion, saying that the one outstanding issue of clinical guidelines was “a matter for clinicians and totally out of our control”. And he said the clinical guidelines for obstetricians would be coming from the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
But the institute’s chairman, Professor Robert Harrison, said he wanted to set the record straight. “The guidelines are coming from the Department of Health, not directly from the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists,” he said.
In a recent interview with the Irish Independent, Dr Reilly said that the guidelines would be in place “very early in the new year”. But he said that abortions could be carried out without them. “You can. Absolutely. Totally. The most important thing you need is the panel of experts to review an appeal case,” he said.
This appeared at www.prolife.ie/news/2014/01/09/abortion-law-rushed-effect-amid-deep-confusion.