PRECIOUS LIFE CALLS FOR RESIGNATION OF RCM’S BREEDAGH HUGHES
The morning of 8th April 2016 on BBC Radio Ulster’s The Stephen Nolan Show, Breedagh Hughes, the director of the Royal College of Midwives in Northern Ireland, was invited to discuss the Department of Health’s latest guidelines concerning healthcare professionals’ “legal and professional obligation to practice within the law and have an obligation to report activity they know to be unlawful”.
When asked if she believed that a woman should disclose to a doctor or nurse that she had taken illegal abortion pills and had aborted her unborn child, Hughes simply answered: “No”. She acknowledges that “once you know it, you can’t un-know it” and so adopts the “don’t ask, don’t tell approach”. She appealed “to any woman or girl who finds herself in need of medical attention, no matter what she’s done, please go and seek that help”. Her voice was breaking with desperation as she said, “if you can remember not to say anything when you get there that would be even more helpful.”
Bernadette Smyth, the director of Precious Life, the leading pro-life group in Northern Ireland, responded to these disturbing comments:
“Breedagh Hughes has brought shame on the Royal College of Midwives by betraying her contempt for the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and her chilling disregard for the health and safety of women and the lives of their unborn children. Her advice to ‘sweep it under the carpet and move on’ when a woman is bleeding and in distress after buying abortion pills and procuring her own abortion is devoid of any integrity or common sense. A woman must tell her doctor what she has done, in order to get the care and treatment she badly needs. Her advice to midwives and other professionals to not report the crime is an incitement for them to conspire in the deliberate killing of unborn children.
“I am utterly appalled by Hughes’ interview on The Stephen Nolan Show this morning, especially as she dared to admit that members of the healthcare profession are trying to ‘find a way around this requirement’ to report any unlawful activity. This paints a very frightening picture of the state of our healthcare profession and patients’ safety in hospitals throughout Northern Ireland. Precious Life will be writing to the Department of Health and the Royal College of Midwives to make a complaint and to request Breedagh Hughes’ resignation from the Royal College of Midwives.”