Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that Catholic ethos hospitals will be forced to end the lives of unborn babies on demand despite abortion being forbidden by the church.
He also said that while doctors, nurses and midwives can opt out of killing unborn babies on conscientious grounds GP’s who oppose abortion, which the vast majority do, will have no have right to refuse to refer their patients to a doctor who does not moral qualms with aborting babies.
In Portugal for example a huge majority of obstetricians refuse to perform abortions and in Britain there is a shortage of doctors seeking to go into the field of obstetrics due to the fact they will likely have to carry out abortions.
The majority of doctors, and GP’s in particular, opposing abortion in Ireland on conscientious grounds presents a dilemma for the government. Before the repeal referendum the government were more assuring of the conscientious rights of doctors but have since taken harder line.