On Wednesday, the parliamentary Health Committee unanimously approved a request from BE to hear the Health Minister and the Healthcare Regulatory Agency on the barriers to access to abortion in the SNS, a parliamentary source told Lusa.
Another request from the PCP on the same issue, but requesting hearings from the director of the SNS and the president of the Association of Hospital Administrators, was rejected and the PS voted against.
In the application approved today, the BE considered that the law on voluntary termination of pregnancy appeared to be an “extremely positive policy” from a public health perspective, “reducing complications and mortality associated with clandestine practices” .
“Despite all this, the obstacles that the SNS places to access voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) remain. Obstacles that are unacceptable because they call into question access to a right and because they undermine the dignity of women,” the report said.
In particular, the party cited a report from the Health Regulatory Authority (ERS), which is the result of a monitoring process launched on March 10, which indicates that “of the 42 official SNS hospital entities eligible to carry out IVG , there are 15 not”. do it.”
“Of these 15, two did not even have a referral procedure to another facility where IVG could be performed,” he said.
According to BE, the report also indicates that of the 55 Health Center Groups (ACES), “only five provide preliminary consultations and do not perform IVG”.
For the party, this data is “just a small summary of the various issues identified”, which in itself is “very worrying and unacceptable”.
“The situation will not be resolved by the government, either in weeks or months, and these are not small isolated cases. Rather, it is a deterioration of the situation that calls into question the law and access to rights provided for by the law. “, it reads.
The PCP also raised the ERS report in today’s rejected request, arguing that it “contains worrying conclusions from the point of view of the persistence of unacceptable problems, obstacles and even disrespect for women’s rights regarding IVG”.
“There are at least fifteen hospitals that do not guarantee access to this procedure. Some do not have a gynecology and obstetrics service, and others do not even come up with alternative solutions in a timely manner,” reads the PCP’s request.
The communist bank also stated that it concluded that the law is “violated in a large number of units, with at least 20% of requests not respecting deadlines.”
The PCP also highlighted that 68% of abortions were performed in public hospitals, using the medical method in 98% of situations, while in recognized private institutions, the surgical method was used in 95% of situations.
For the communist bank, these data reveal “that the loss of NHS response capacity in all areas, especially in gynaecology/obstetrics, cannot but be inextricably linked to the difficulties in accessing IVG”.
Source: DN
