Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 December 2020
766. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 201 of 25 November 2020, if all 100 of the ministerial notifications received by his Department of terminations carried out here under section 11 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 in the year 2019 contained signatures from two medics as required by the Act (details supplied). [40422/20]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, section 11 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 states that a termination of pregnancy may be carried out where two medical practitioners are of the reasonable opinion, formed in good faith that there is present a condition affecting the foetus that is likely to lead to the death of the foetus before, or within 28 of, birth. Section 11 (3) states that a termination may not be carried out unless each of the two medical practitioners involved has certified his or her opinion in this regard.
Section 19 of the Act makes provision for the certification required, and the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 (Certification) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 596 of 2018) set out the prescribed form for certification under the Act. Two medical practitioners are required to sign the certification form in order for a termination of pregnancy to be carried out under section 11 of the Act.
The Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 does not require the certification form containing medical practitioners’ signatures to be forwarded to the Minister. Rather, such certification forms are retained as part of the patient’s confidential medical records.
Under section 20 of the Act, and the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 (Notification) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 597 of 2018), a notification form must be sent to the Minister in respect of any termination of pregnancy carried out. Such notification forms do not require the signature of the two medical practitioners involved in carrying out a termination of pregnancy under section 11 of the Act.
Further to section 20, subsections (3) and (5) of the Act, the detail on notification forms received by the Minister in respect of terminations of pregnancy carried out in a given year are published in the form of an Annual Report.
All of the information permitted to be published under the Act for terminations of pregnancy carried out in 2019 was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 30 June 2020 and subsequently published the same day in the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 - Annual Report on Notifications 2019
