Nurses and midwives have said they are appalled at being told they must “respect” abortion in updated guidelines from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.
The Board has published an updated edition of its Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Registered Nurses and Registered Midwives (the Code) to “embrace” some recent legislative changes including the legalisation of abortion. It says that the Code is “a most important document to guide decision-making” in nursing practice.
The Code has been updated to instruct practitioners that they “must respect a woman’s legal right to a termination of pregnancy within the provisions of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018.
Pro-life nurses and midwives say that the change is an affront to their beliefs and is part of a creep towards forcing doctors and nurses to participate in abortion against their conscience. They also claim that the guidelines were changed without consultation
Nurses and Midwives for Life said that, while all patients would be respected and cared for, the Code could not and should not try to force medical practitioners to respect abortion, which they say is the deliberate taking of a human life.
“We have written to the NMBI seeking clarification on the consultation process with regards to the changes to the Code. We were aware that changes were being considered and wanted to contribute to the review but we were not given this opportunity,” they said.
“There appear to be contradictory statements with the requirement to respect abortion and at the same time stating ‘You have a responsibility to make every valid or reasonable effort to protect the life and health of pregnant women and their unborn babies.’
“The current statement is in conflict with many of the values we uphold as nurses and midwives. We believe all babies have a right to life from the moment of conception and this is encompassed in our Code under the 1st Principle: Respect for the dignity of the person which states that ‘Nurses and midwives respect and defend the dignity of every stage of human life’, ” they said.
“Nurses and midwives, who in conscience do not want to be involved in abortions, are appalled that under their Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics they are now being told they must respect a right to abortion. The two-patient model where both the mother and the baby’s life are protected has been turned on its head. In the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 “termination of pregnancy”, in relation to a pregnant woman, means a medical procedure which is intended to end the life of a foetus; many nurses and midwives have advised their managers they have a conscientious commitment to life which prevents them from taking part in a procedure intended to end the life of a foetus,” they said.
“Abortions are taking place at a rate of approx 18 per day in Ireland and the vast majority are in the first 12 weeks. These will almost all be healthy babies. Almost 100 babies were aborted for life-limiting conditions in 2020 and we are not told at what stage these were carried out. We do know from research by UCC that the practice of foeticide where the baby’s heart is injected with potassium chloride – which is a very corrosive and painful drug – under ultrasound guidance is taking place in Irish hospitals. These babies are capable of feeling pain and are not given any pain relief prior to this procedure,” the nurses and midwives group said.
“This is against the backdrop of a substantial decrease in the number of live births – Ireland’s birthrate has fallen 20% in the last decade and is 4000 less than it was 2019. Our total fertility rate is 1.7 which is below replacement level. Since abortion was legalised and taxpayer-funded we have seen an exponential rise in the number of abortions,” they added.