Reacting to the decision by the Mater to comply with our new abortion law, a nurse tutor at the hospital, Sr Eugene Nolan, made a very interesting comment that reveals the contrast between a pro-life hospital and one that is not.

Referring to the fact that five seriously ill pregnant women were transferred for treatment from the Rotunda to the Mater last year, she told The Irish Times: “The women had serious heart conditions. I guarantee you in England those babies would not have been born, the pregnancies would have been terminated. We deal with complicated situations, we do not set out to lose babies. If we do lose babies it’s not because we set out to.”

What this shows is how a pro-life hospital will do its best to save both the mother and the baby while one that is not so pro-life will often work to save the mother at the expense of the baby.

To put it another way, a hospital like the Mater works very hard to save both lives, while a hospital with no ethical objection to abortion will not work as hard to save both lives.

The Catholic Church is often accused of putting pregnant women’s lives at risk. The Mater is a Catholic hospital. Is there any evidence it places the lives of pregnant women at risk because of its ethos? If there was, the Rotunda would not send women there.

On the other hand, a hospital with no ethical objection to abortion will very clearly places babies’ lives at risk. So which ethos endangers lives, one with a strong ethical objection to abortion or one with less or no objection? The question answers itself.

It is a great pity of course that the Mater has said it will obey the new law but let’s keep in mind that to date it has been a truly pro-life hospital and hopefully in practice it will remain so indefinitely despite its unfortunate stance on our abortion law.