The HSE has confirmed that Dilation and Evacuation (D&E), which involves dismemberment of the unborn baby up to six months into a pregnancy, is being carried out in Ireland under the new abortion law.
It was mentioned in a UCD study published earlier in the year that doctors were receiving training in how to perform D&E abortions but the admission that these abortions are actually being performed came this week in reply to a Parliamentary Question from Galway East TD Seán Canney.
Before the 2018 abortion referendum, senior politicians promised voters that D&E abortions would never happen if the Eighth Amendment was repealed.
The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (IOG) went so far as to issue a public statement saying: “The destructive methods described for second trimester termination of pregnancy are currently not carried out in this jurisdiction, nor will they be in the future.”
Included in this week’s confirmation from the HSE that D&E abortions are being carried out in Ireland was a reference to the fact that it’s the IOG who are overseeing the training of doctors in how to carry out these types of abortions.
