Doctors for Repeal of the 8th Amendment

We, as doctors and medical students, acknowledge the harms which the 8th Amendment visits on Irish women, who cannot access healthcare in Ireland due to the constitutional prohibition on abortion.

Abortion is a normal feature in the reproductive lives of all women in Ireland and abroad. International evidence and all healthcare organisations (such as the WHO) acknowledge that restricting access to abortion is associated with significant harms to the health of women.

The 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution states that a foetus, from conception, has full and equal rights to that of Irish women. It reads:

‘The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.’

As doctors we believe that a religious social policy, inserted in a State's constitution, should not dictate how medical care is provided. We believe that doctors should be free to practice evidence-based medicine, without the constitution and the threat of criminalisation preventing best medical practice. We believe that women with fatal fetal abnormalities or whose health is jeopardised should have access to safe abortion services in Ireland, without having to travel abroad to access healthcare.

We recommend that all Irish citizens are given the option to #repealthe8th through referendum.

Having repealed this referendum, as doctors we look forward to providing healthcare to all Irish women.

IF A DOCTOR, PLEASE SIGN USING:

1. YOUR NAME, FOLLOWED BY YOUR IRISH MEDICAL COUNCIL REGISTRATION NUMBER
2. YOUR SPECIALTY