Decision not to oppose symphysiotomy bill is a step toward justice for survivors- Crowe

Dublin South West TD, Seán Crowe, believes that the Government’s decision not to oppose the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Bill 2013, which allows survivors of symphysiotomy to seek legal redress for the injuries they suffered, is a step toward justice.

Crowe, who is a remember of the Victims of Symphysiotomy All-Party Support Group in the Oireachtas, spoke on the Bill in the Dáil on Tuesday night.

Deputy Crowe said:

“This bill presented an opportunity to discuss the hurt and pain forced on the survivors of the barbaric practice of symphysiotomy. We had the opportunity to not only discuss this crime against women, but to right the wrong perpetrated on this group.

“Symphysiotomies involve the sawing of a pregnant woman’s pelvis to facilitate childbirth. The women who survived this act spoke of the long-term health problems, including chronic pain and incontinence, that it caused.

“This barbaric act was carried out in the State between the 1940s and the early 1990s, long after such operations had been discontinued in other countries. The process was secretive and women who underwent the procedure had to carry the burden alone, unable to speak publicly of their pain.

“Symphysiotomy was a callous attempt to push religious beliefs and values on innocent women. Many symphysiotomies were carried out illegally and doctors failed to get the consent of their female patients.

“It appears that the procedure was only applied to public patients in hospitals with a strong Catholic ethos. It was viewed and performed by some as an alternative to caesarean section. Some viewed the latter as a cap on the size of families, since a mother who underwent it was restricted to having four children at most.

“I have worked with fellow Deputies on the victims of symphysiotomy all-party support group. I have met and spoken with many victims. They were hurt by the Walsh report, which was commissioned by the Government. It concluded that 97% of symphysiotomies carried out in Ireland were in line with acceptable medical practice. The survivors were not asked for their opinions, their stories or about what they had been forced to endure.

“This bill, introduced by my party colleague Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, gives us the chance to right the wrongs inflicted on these women and remove this whitewash of history. They were not medical exceptions.

“The Bill is modelled on the 2000 legislation to allow victims of child sex abuse in residential institutions to seek compensation. It would lift the two-year statute of limitation that prevents many victims from seeking compensation in the courts.

“In recent months and years, we as legislators have debated and read about women who fell victim to the State’s brutality. Approximately 1,500 women underwent this brutal procedure, fewer than 200 of whom are alive today. We should hang our heads in shame.

“In these now elderly women’s fight for justice, they met barriers when they turned for help. They have mostly been let down by men.

“The women have the simplest of demands, namely, the lifting of the statute of limitations so that they can get redress and receive proper recognition for what was inflicted on them.

“As Mr. Michael Clifford wrote in the Irish Examiner in November 2012: “The State broke their bodies not their spirit”.

“By passing this bill, the men and women of the Dáil and Seanad, can begin to right the wrongs inflicted on these women.”