GPs who organised a petition calling on the Irish College of General Practitioners to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting on the provision of a GP-led abortion regime in Ireland, have described the decision to hold it in four weeks time as “wholly unacceptable”. The legislation in question has already cleared one vote in the Dail and amendments to the bill are due to be considered in the committee stage this coming week.

The 2 December EGM was announced in a statement by the ICGP board Friday evening, after it received a petition from over 600 GPs, who are concerned about multiple aspects of the proposed legislation, including the wholly inadequate provision of conscience protections.

The GPs who organised the petition have said they approached the ICGP board on multiple occasions to ask for an EGM in order to clarify the attitude of the ICGP membership about the abortion provisions, but all those requests were refused. The petition triggered an automatic EGM, but the timing of it now appears to make its purpose moot because the meeting has been deferred “until after amendment stage in the Dáil”. Because of this, the GPs have accused the ICGP of ensuring that the voice of mainstream General Practice would not be heard by legislators.

The statement says those who signed the petition represent a variety of views on the proposed legislation, but they share a concern regarding the “total lack of consultation” with GPs from the Minister for Health and the ICGP Board.

It describes “the level of disregard” by the Board to GPs on the ground as “appalling”.