Dublin South West representative, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to release his government\u2019s recommendations on how it intends to finally process this issue and at last bring some closure to the survivors of symphysiotomy before the D\u00e1il goes into recess. The Tallaght based Deputy described symphysiotomy as a barbaric practice that has scarred countless numbers of pregnant women right across the state.<\/p>\n
Symphysiotomy was a surgical procedure that involved unhinging the woman\u2019s pelvis and widening it by up to 3.5 cm. It was often used in Ireland as an alternative to the Caesarean Section as its aim was to facilitate more and more births. Many women are crippled and carry scars, mental and physical, from undergoing symphysiotomy.<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach this week confirmed that Minister Reilly will be bringing his analysis and ideas to the Cabinet very shortly and that he has agreed to meet the range of support groups active on this issue, before the publication of the government\u2019s own recommendations.<\/p>\n
Teachta Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is estimated that there were around 1500 symphysiotomies carried out in the state over the decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cSymphysiotomy amounted to institutional abuse and involved acts of barbarity and butchery against pregnant women.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are now only around 200 victims still surviving. They are all elderly and carry deep physical and emotional scars from their experience. Some are quite frail and they simply cannot afford to wait for long months or years for justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Department of Health received this report at the end of May and it was delivered to the Minister for Health on May 31st.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime is not on the victims\u2019 side on this issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of these women have the support of all parties in the Oireachtas and in April the government supported the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Bill 2013, introduced by my party colleague Caoimhgh\u00edn O Caol\u00e1in TD, which seeks to accommodate access to the courts for all victims of symphysiotomy who would choose that course of action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government must now make every effort to expedite the publication of the report by Professor Oonagh Walsh into the barbarity called symphysiotomy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should also release the government\u2019s recommendations on how it intends to process this issue and bring some closure to these women before the D\u00e1il goes into recess.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe process of securing justice for these women victims is very important. The government needs to create a process that will allow the women victims to decide whether to avail of any redress scheme that the government might establish or to clear the way for them to take this issue to the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dublin South West representative, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to release his government\u2019s recommendations on how it intends to finally process this issue and at last bring some closure to the survivors of symphysiotomy before the D\u00e1il goes into recess. The Tallaght based Deputy described symphysiotomy as a barbaric practice that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-symphysiotomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}