Meeting taking place at the Courtyard Hotel in Leixlip amidst campaign for new national maternity hospital to be publicly owned
By Kim O'Leary
A public meeting is set to take place in Leixlip tonight organised by members of Leixlip Pro-Choice as they say that the new National Maternity Hospital on the St Vincent's hospital campus should be publicly owned and have a secular charter.
The meeting is taking place at the Courtyard Hotel in Leixlip at 8pm tonight and speakers will include health writer Marie O'Connor and midwife Ruth O'Connor.
Health Minister Simon Harris is currently in private discussion with the St Vincent's Healthcare Trust about providing at least €300 million of public funds to build the new National Maternity Hospital on the St Vincent's hospital campus under St Vincent's Hospital Trust control.
Commenting on this, health writer Marie O'Connor said:“We can't allow the government to gift the new national maternity hospital to the St Vincent's Hospital Trust – Sisters of Charity. To put the hospital in the control of a church organisation would mean that any services currently prohibited by the Catholic hierarchy would not be provided."
She added: "The Bishops' Code of Ethics says any form of artificial contraception, the morning after pill, any form of assisted fertility treatment, surrogacy, abortion, referral elsewhere for abortion, sterilization, and gender reassignment surgery cannot be provided in a Catholic facility. We refuse to allow such restrictions in a publicly-funded hospital.”
Supporting the campaign for public ownership of the hospital, Cllr Brendan Young said: “In the referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment, there was a 73.6% Yes vote in Kildare North – to give women access to abortion services in Ireland. It's outrageous that the Sisters of Charity, which controls the St Vincent's Hospital Trust and still refuses to pay compensation for survivors of abuse, should have control of a new hospital and thereby impose their ethos and be able to block abortion and other procedures being done there. This is against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland."
"I urge people to contact their local TD's and Simon Harris to say they want the new hospital to be publicly owned and governed under a non-religious charter," concluded Cllr Young.
Meanwhile, the group is also set to stage a protest at the Spire in Dublin at 2pm on Saturday, 8 December.