A Limerick hospital group says it has not received any complaints from patients, their families or staff relating to pro-life vigils or protests, breakingnews.ie has reported.
The revelation comes despite repeated claims by TDs and other abortion campaigners that a “safe access zone” was required at University Maternity Hospital Limerick.
Local politicians, along with TDs, Senators and abortion campaigners nationally, all repeatedly claimed that women were being subject to ‘harassment and intimidation’ at the hospital. Pro-life volunteers responded by saying that the only presence at the hospital took the form of peaceful, usually silent, and prayerful vigils.
Breaking News said that the UL Hospitals Group, which manages the maternity hospital on the Ennis Road in Limerick City, said “they were not aware of any such protests taking place”.
“Certainly not intimidatory… there might have been one or two women outside the hospital saying prayers with rosary beads occasionally, but they would only be there for a few minutes and then leave – they were certainly not intimidating anyone,” the hospital told reporter David Raleigh.
In fact, the hospital had only had received “third-party correspondence on this matter” which the group has noted, according to the report.
Megan Ní Scanláin of the Life Institute said that “absurd and untrue claims” had been made by abortion supporters in order to vilify prayerful pro-life vigils, and it was now clear that these claims were not backed by evidence.
“The hospital says it has received no complaints from anyone – not from women seeking abortions, not from staff, not from anyone at all – yet every media platform in the country reported the baseless claims that women were being harassed at maternity centres when seeking abortion,” she said.
“The real truth lies in the intention of the bill brought forward by Sinn Féin’s Paul Gavin earlier this year on behalf of abortion campaigners who had claimed ‘safe access zones’ were needed. That bill sought to criminalise anyone who sought to “influence” a person’s decision about having an abortion. That would make it a crime to simply hand a pregnant woman a leaflet asking her to consider other options. Why would anyone who really cared about women seek to impose that restriction? It’s unfair, draconian and unreasonable and so it seems it needed to be justified by the claim that pro-life people were “intimidating and distressing” women. Turns out there is no evidence that was happening in Limerick,” Ms Ní Scanláín said.