Campaign established to protest against church involvement in new National Maternity Hospital

A new cross-organisational group is campaigning to keep the new National Maternity Hospital in state ownership.

Current plans are for the National Maternity Hospital to be owned and run by a private Catholic corporation, owned by the Sisters of Charity. The religious order previously ran a Magdalene laundry and operated five residential schools. The Ryan report revealed that hundreds of children had been abused over the decades that the Sisters of Charity ran the schools. In 2009, after the release of the Ryan report, the Sisters of Charity agreed to pay €5m towards the redress scheme and to date, they have paid two million. It is expected that the new hospital will cost the state an estimated €300 million.

Looking forward to speaking at #OurMaternityHospital Protest on Sat Dec 8th @ 2.00pm on behalf of @TFMRIRE. It is so important that all who need it have access to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare. No publically funded hospital should be run under a catholic ethos pic.twitter.com/hJ7bMjU5sj

— Amy Walsh (@amymarylucy) December 7, 2018

The Campaign Against Church Ownership of Women's Healthcare says that:

"Current plans will see the maternity hospital governed by the nuns' company, St Vincent's Healthcare Group (SVHG), and owned by a new private Catholic company to be set up by SVHG."

The Campaign Against Church Ownership of Women's Healthcare are concerned that public money is being spent on a "€300m gift" to a religious organisation and that the hospital will be run under a religious ethos.

"With private ownership come legal powers and privileges. Private hospitals cannot be forced to provide services that conflict with their ethos. They cannot even be compelled to submit to independent inquiries into patient safety, as a High Court case taken by the same National Maternity Hospital against the Minister shows."

Earlier this year the Irish Catholic Bishops released a document titled, ‘Code of Ethical Standards for Healthcare’. The document stated that in the 20 hospitals run by religious orders there is to be a ban on contraception, abortion, gender reassignment surgery and crisis pregnancy counselling that involved information about abortion for families given a fatal foetal anomaly diagnosis. Sinéad Nolan from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties says that the Catholic Church discriminate and deny bodily autonomy to girls, women, and other people who can become pregnant.

"It is time to change the structures of the past whereby the State paid for private religious organisations to provide health and social services in a way that deprived women of their autonomy and subjected them to discriminatory and degrading practices." "Ensuring the independence of the National Maternity Hospital would go some way to guaranteeing non-repetition of the abuses perpetrated by the State and religious organisations, including the Sisters of Charity."

Health journalist Marie O'Connor added her voice to those opposing the plans, calling it "fatally flawed".

"We are being asked to pay for a major new facility we will neither own nor control. The new hospital will cost an estimated €350m, yet the government plans to gift it to a private entity owned by a religious congregation. This is a model of care that is not fit for purpose in 2018."

The Campaign Against Church Ownership of Women's Healthcare says urgent action is needed from the public, as the Minister for health has indicated he hopes to sign off on the first works for the new build before the end of this year.

Protest at THE SPIRE at 2 pm on Saturday 8th Dec #OurMaternityHospital #MakeNMHOurs #Repealedthe8th pic.twitter.com/8pmJ6kZlRp

— Ailbhe Smyth (@ailbhes) December 7, 2018

The Campaign Against Church Ownership of Women's Healthcare has started an online petition and there is a demonstration at the Spire in Dublin on the 8 December.