A meeting to discuss abortion services in Carlow & Kilkenny will take place this evening.
Carlow Choice & Equality Network is hosting the gathering at The Irisman’s Bar from 6pm following reports that no GP in the county has signed up to provide abortion services and also to discuss the scarcity of provision in Kilkenny.
The group is planning actions across the two counties to ask local-based GP’s to sign up to this service.
The group has set up an online petition calling for the provision of services in Carlow. That can be viewed here
The Minister for Health is contacting opposition spokespeople to discuss bringing in exclusion areas outside hospitals & GP surgeries offering abortion services.
It follows anti-abortion protests outside facilities in Galway & Louth.
Event spokesperson Kate Campbell’s been telling KCLR News that this will also be discussed at this evening’s get-together.
The HSE has sent the following statement to KCLR:
“GPs and family planning services who have signed up to provide the service are now beginning to provide care to patients who want to have an abortion. A lot of work has been done and is ongoing to set up services to care for women, and the HSE will provide information to women and to healthcare professionals about where and how services are available as they come on stream.
Working to develop the service over recent months, we agreed an approach with GPs whereby details of GPs taking part in providing abortion care will not be published, but details are provided directly to people who need it, through our new My Options helpline.
We are satisfied that there is already a good geographic spread of GPs taking part, enough to meet the needs of people who may need to access the service. As of last Friday (04/01/2019), almost 200 GPs have signed the contract and each day more GPs are signing up, as the service evolves.”
