Anti-abortion protests are ‘intimidating and unpleasant’, a GP has said.
Dr Madeleine Ní Dhalaigh and a colleague started providing abortion services in 2019 and the medical centre they practice at soon began to attract protestors.
“Initially, they could come on a Saturday when there weren't any surgeries going on but they very quickly started to come on a Friday,” she told Lunchtime Live.
Usually, there are around 10 but sometimes there are as many as 15; previously, they turned up once a month but Dr Ní Dhalaigh said their protests have become a “little more erratic” in recent months.
Dr Ní Dhalaigh said she strongly supports people’s right to protest but feels outside a medical centre is not an appropriate place.
“We are in a particular situation where we’re offering healthcare to the community,” she said.
“We are offering healthcare to a particular cohort who often have to travel to see us - often under duress [and] may have particular circumstances where if they disclose why they’re with us to the people around them they [then] may be under threat of physical violence.
“They deserve to have their confidentiality respected.”
The medical centre is not an abortion clinic and people also attend it for routine GP services.
However, Dr Ní Dhalaigh is concerned a woman attending the clinic from outside the area might be recognised as there for an abortion - something that could put her in danger.
'Very unpleasant'
“They’re across the road with banners, with their eyes trained on our entrance,” she said.
“It’s most intimidating and I have to say it’s very unpleasant for our staff.
“We have a great team and I have no idea how anybody on our team voted in the referendum; they’re very possibly people who voted no but they’ve never obstructed or objected to us providing legal healthcare - which it is - to the women and girls of the area.”
Last year, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly secured the Cabinet’s permission to legislate for so-called ‘safe access zones’ around healthcare premises where abortions take place.
The Government has said the law will be on the statute book by the end of 2023.
Main image: An anti-abortion protest. Picture by: Alamy.com