Sir, - During the debate preceding the abortion referendum many people were very sympathetic to the plight of Ms Deirdre de Barra, who wrote to your paper, saying that at 16 weeks' gestation she discovered her child could not sustain extrauterine life.
She, and then others, who wrote to the papers or spoke on radio, said they felt abandoned by the medical profession here when they decided to terminate these pregnancies. They also spoke of the difficulties of organising an abortion in England in such circumstances.
At their press conference the Masters of the three Dublin maternity hospitals said they wished such pregnancies could be aborted here so that a proper post-mortem could be carried out on the foetus involved in case the results had an implication for future pregnancies.
It does not appear that it would be legal to abort such pregnancies here, but the Minister for Health and the obstetricians involved in such cases could make better arrangements for these patients. Formal approaches could be made by the Minister to some major obstetric centres in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The patients could be referred to obstetricians in these centres for a second opinion and, if there was agreement on diagnosis, an abortion could be performed.
The Minister for Health would pay for the procedure. He does, after all, already refer patients abroad for treatment which is unavailable here and during the abortion referendum debate he did say he would pay for abortions in cases of pregnancies due to incest where the pregnant child was in the care of a Health Board.
I have written to the Minister for Health and Children and to Prof John Bonnar, chairman of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, hoping such a procedure could be implemented as soon as possible. - Yours, etc.,
Senator MARY HENRY MD,
Seanad Éireann,
Baile Átha Cliath, 2.