Dublin Catholic hospital won't do abortions, religious nurse-tutor says

October 03, 2013

After a priest resigned from the governing board of a Catholic hospital in Dublin, citing the institution's announced willingness to comply with Ireland's new abortion law, a nurse-tutor has said that the Mater hospital "won't be performing abortions."

"This is a matter of how we deal with complicated situations," said Sister Eugene Nolan. She said that the Mater hospital had a record of working to save the lives of both mothers and children in complicated pregnancies. "If we do lose babies it's not because we set out to," she told the Irish Times.

Sister Nolan said that during the past year five women were successfully treated at Mater hospital for life-threatening conditions during pregnancy. "I guarantee you, in England those babies would not have been born, the pregnancies would have been terminated," she said.

Reacting to the resignation of Father Kevin Doran from the hospital's board, Sister Nolan said that it was a "huge loss." Despite her confidence in the institution, she admitted that she is not sure about her own tenure there. "I dont' know where we go now," she said. "I'm going to see."

 

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Further information:

• Mater ‘won’t be performing abortions’, religious board member stresses (Irish Times)
• How a strong pro-life ethos saves both the mother and her child (Iona Institute)
• Irish priest resigns from hospital board over new abortion policy (CWN, 10/2)