Health Minister Simon Harris has told of his frustration as an Irish couple live tweeted their journey to Liverpool to terminate a pregnancy with fatal foetal abnormalities.
Speaking yesterday, Harris admitted:
“this greatly saddens and frustrates me that women and their partners find themselves in this situation in this country”
The husband and wife, tweeting under the handle ‘Heartbroken&Punished’ @itstimetorepeal, documented their journey across the Irish Sea to abort their pregnancy after discovering the foetus had a significant genetic condition, Edwards Syndrome, which causes babies to grow very slowly in the womb, have low birthweight, and a number of other serious medical issues.
Edwards’ syndrome affects around one in 3,000 to 6,000 live births. The NHS state that of those that survive to birth, around half will die within two weeks and only around one in every five will live at least three months. Around one in every twelve babies born with this survive beyond one year, and they will live with severe physical and mental disabilities. Some children do survive to early adulthood, but this is very rare.
The couple’s first child was born with a genetic condition. After genetic screening in this pregnancy revealed Edwards Syndrome, the couple were told that “life would be counted in minutes and hours” after birth if the pregnancy was carried to term. Forced to leave their seriously ill child behind in Ireland as they made their heart-wrenching journey to the Northern English city, they Tweeted:
— Heartbroken&Punished (@itstimetorepeal) November 5, 2016
After the procedure, the couple tweeted from the recovery room to say:
“Our journey is almost over, our angel is coming home with us and will be laid to rest where we can watch over them forever”
Using the hashtag #itstimetorepeal, they thanked Minister Harris:
Thank you @SimonHarrisTD perhaps you could share that information with your fellow TD’s and act on it finally.. #itstimetorepeal https://t.co/7HgIfpvlGj
— Heartbroken&Punished (@itstimetorepeal) November 10, 2016
The couple have received huge amounts of support, with the director of Amnesty Ireland Colm O’Gorman adding:
@itstimetorepeal your courage & dignity is extraordinary. I am so sorry you’ve been forced to endure this. Much love & respect to you both
— Colm O’Gorman (@Colmogorman) November 10, 2016
Explaining their decision to tweet their horrendous experience, the husband and wife said that they hoped it would help those that may have been through something similar or may be unfortunate enough to do so in the future.
You can follow the updates @itstimetorepeal
