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.”

A man holds rosary beads and a sign across the road from Holles Street Hospital in Dublin in September 2019. Picture by: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie.

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