An Independent TD has said it is “deeply concerning” that the HSE has confirmed to her that it is only at the scoping stage in relation to guidelines around “care for circumstances where a baby is born showing signs of life”, following an abortion.
Offaly TD, Carol Nolan said that the public needed “absolute absolute clarity on what happens when a baby is born alive following a failed abortion” and whether care would be provided.
The issue of babies surviving abortion, and doctors being left “begging” for help when that occurred, was first raised in a paper on abortion provision in Ireland published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology by researchers at UCC.
The authors noted that the specialists carrying out abortion were frustrated by conflict with neonatologists and were “unclear” as to who will look after those babies if a baby was “born alive following an abortion by induction of labour and without feticide”.
This would leave the doctor who performed an unsuccessful late-term abortion “begging people to help” them provide palliative care if the baby survived, the study recorded.
Additionally, in February of this year it was revealed that 108 babies have been born alive following abortion in Ireland between 2019-2023. Of that number, 29 babies survived an abortion in 2023 alone.
A table of data released to Tipperary TD, Mattie McGrath, by the Department of Health at the time showed that there were 108 babies who were born after an abortion – with their deaths recorded as an “early neonatal death” after Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) by the DoH.
While 17 babies were born alive after abortion in 2019, that number had almost doubled to 29 in 2023 – with a total of 108 such cases in the 5 year period.
The data showed that 47 babies who were greater than 24 weeks gestation (approximately 6 months) and/or 500g at the time of the birth after abortion was listed as having suffered an early neonatal death after a termination of pregnancy.
Pro-life spokeswoman Sandra Parda of the Life Institute said that it was “deeply disquieting and disturbing” to see that, in total during the period, 32 babies had been aborted and then born alive although no major congenital anomaly had not been diagnosed: with 3 such deaths taking place in 2019, 7 in 2020, 5 in 2021, 8 in 2022 and 9 in 2023.
Further, it was evident that 4 unborn babies who were more than 24 weeks gestation and/or more than 500g birthweight were aborted although there was no diagnosis of a major abnormality, she said.
A review of abortion services in Ireland commissioned by the government which reported in 2023 confirmed that babies are being born alive after abortion – and may be denied even comfort care after the procedure failed to end their lives.
Discussing palliative care, where comfort care should be provided for babies born alive after a late-term abortion, the review noted that some paediatricians and neonatologists do not want to be involved in assisting these babies.
“However, the extent to which they are prepared to become involved is described as differing across settings and differing across the circumstances of the birth, with some not being prepared to offer comfort care where the birth is a result of a termination of pregnancy,” the review, authored by barrister Marie O’Shea, noted.
Speaking to Gript, Deputy Carol Nolan said that it was “extraordinary” and “deeply concerning” that the HSE was “only now at the start of the process which would ensure guidelines for care for babies born alive after abortion.”
“This clinical guidance is only at the very early stage – where is the urgency, given what we know about the increasing numbers of babies surviving abortion?” she asked.
Using a Freedom of Information request, Deputy Nolan asked the HSE for access to records held by the HSE which related to “the development of clinical guidance for the delivery of perinatal palliative care/comfort care following a
termination of pregnancy, as referenced on page 24 of the Department of Health’s recent report.”
In response, the HSE said that there are two guideline development projects of relevance.
“The first is a new Clinical Practice Guideline on Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Anomaly. A writing group has been established and scoping work is underway. The provision of comfort care, care in circumstances where a baby is born showing signs of life following a termination of pregnancy, and the role of feticide will be considered within the scope and clinical questions of the new guideline,” the HSE said.
“The second guideline of relevance is a new Clinical Practice Guideline on Perinatal Palliative Care. This guideline has only recently been commissioned. The scope and clinical questions are currently being determined. The guideline is included on the national guideline development roadmap and is provisionally scheduled for publication in late 2026 or early 2027.”
Deputy Nolan said: “This is an extraordinary admission. The Department of Health itself directed this work to the HSE years ago, yet we are now told that the dedicated Perinatal Palliative Care guideline has only recently been commissioned and the parallel Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Anomaly guideline is still at the scoping stage.”
“We deserve absolute clarity on what happens when a baby is born alive following a failed abortion. Instead, the HSE is telling us that even the most basic questions around comfort care and the stark reality of feticide are still being decided.”
In addition to the above, the HSE refused access to 89 internal records, including draft minutes of advisory group meetings where the perinatal palliative care guideline was discussed citing deliberative process and functions exemptions, she pointed out.
Sandra Parda of the Life Institute said that it was “horrific to think that a baby surviving abortion would be left without even comfort care.”
“In addition, the clinical language used by the HSE masks the genuinely dreadful reality of what’s happening every time a feticide is carried out: it’s basically a lethal injection into the baby’s heart,” she said.
(For more on what is involved in feticide, as mentioned above, see here)