Yes, it’s the Mater Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, a Catholic hospital that I wrote about two days ago for trying to prevent the dissemination of birth-control information to women undergoing chemotherapy trials. Now they’re screwing up again, but this time over abortion.

A piece by Mark Coen in the Irish Times notes that the Mater is poised to contest Ireland’s already restrictive abortion law, the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act of 2013. That act allows abortion in Ireland only under dire circumstances, when the mother’s life is proven to be at risk. Now some board members of the Mater don’t even want to abide by this, for it offends their religious (i.e., Catholic) sensibilities:

Wikipedia summarizes the provisions of the Act

The Act specifies the number and specialty of medical practitioners who must concur that a termination is necessary to prevent a risk of death. These criteria differ in three scenarios: Risk of loss of life from physical illness. Two physicians, one an obstetrician and the other a specialist in the field of the relevant condition, must concur.For example, if the woman has cancer, the two physicians would be an obstetrician and an oncologist. Where relevant, the specialists must also consult the woman’s general practitioner (GP). The termination would be an elective procedure performed at an appropriate institution. Risk of loss of life from physical illness in emergency. In a medical emergency, a single physician must both provide the diagnosis and perform the termination.

Risk of loss of life from suicide. Three physicians must concur; an obstetrician, a psychiatrist with experience treating women during or after pregnancy, and another psychiatrist. At least one of them should consult the woman’s GP with her consent. The termination would be an elective procedure performed at an appropriate institution.

The physicians’ diagnosis must be “an opinion formed in good faith which has regard to the need to preserve unborn human life as far as practicable”. Normal informed consent is required. Medical personnel with conscience objections to abortion will not be required to participate in terminations, but must transfer care of a patient in such cases.All terminations must be notified to the Minister for Health within 28 days.[16] The Minister will make an annual report of such notifications.[1

This law was passed in deference to Irish courts, who said that, in response to women being refused abortions when their lives were in danger, that something had to be done to protect the right to life of the mother, a right specified in the Irish constitution.

Unless their situation conforms to the new stipulations, a woman in Ireland still can’t obtain an abortion. Those who want one have historically flown to England, where abortion is legal; but the law also creates a new offense of “destruction of unborn human life”, with a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment. Abortion was illegal before, but no penalty was specified.

Finally, polls repeatedly show that 60% of the Irish public favor abortion legislation far more liberal than the 2013 law, but the legislature, heavily lobbied by the church, won’t bend.

But even despite the draconian regulations given above, the Mater hospital is objecting to these provisions. They want the right to refuse an abortion to a woman whose life is in danger because it violates their “freedom of religion”. (Note that the Mater formally “belongs” to the Catholic church, it is funded by the Irish government and taxpayers.) From the Times:

In recent days it has been reported that the board of governors of the Mater hospital plans to meet to formulate its position on the hospital’s inclusion in the Act as a centre for the performance of terminations. Two members of the board have indicated publicly that they feel that the legislation conflicts with the religious ethos of the institution. This could herald a constitutional challenge to the Act on the basis that it violates the freedom of religion of the owners of the hospital, the Sisters of Mercy. The Act also designates St Vincent’s hospital, which is owned by the Sisters of Charity, as an institution at which abortions are to be performed.

And it looks as if religion could win, particularly in the case of suicide, when there’s time to move the mother to another, non-Catholic hospital.

The constitutional case law of the Irish courts emphasises that religious institutions, even if publicly funded, may not be forced to act in a manner which conflicts with their ethos. The fact that the pregnant woman has a constitutional right to a termination in certain circumstances does not necessarily mean that that right would trump the very strong constitutional right of an institution to freedom of religion.

Read that last sentence again.

If this legislation is deemed to be unconstitutional, it will give Irish hospitals the legal right to allow a pregnant woman to die—against her wishes and those of her doctors—rather than have a life-saving abortion. How the Irish government manages to flout the wish of its own citizens, pregnant women, and the policy of its fellow EU countries (the EU allows this draconian law on the grounds that it protects Ireland’s “public morals”) is beyond me.

Actually, it isn’t, for it demonstrates the power and the warped “morality” of the Catholic Church. Can you imagine letting both a mother and her fetus die when you could have saved the mother’s life, because of some warped interpretation of an ancient book? I guess they think things will be made right in Heaven.

h/t: Grania Spingies