{"id":17621,"date":"2025-09-12T23:15:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/17621\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T23:15:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:15:14","slug":"twelve-babies-born-alive-after-pregnancy-terminations-in-2022-hse-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/17621\/","title":{"rendered":"Twelve babies born alive after pregnancy terminations in 2022, HSE confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The figures were released by the HSE in a parliamentary response to Independent Ireland TD, Ken O&#8217;Flynn. They were also published by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre based in Cork.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">All 12 babies died soon after birth. One was under 22 weeks, nine were at 22-27 weeks and two were at 28-31 weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The HSE, in its response to the TD, said it does not collate specific national audit data on the care of babies born alive after termination of pregnancy.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/e94b9504-77f3-4806-9be3-bbd76b03ef9a.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Today&#8217;s News in 90 Seconds, Friday, September 12<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">All infants delivered with a diagnosis of a life-limiting condition, including those delivered following termination of pregnancy, are provided with comfort care in line with HSE guidance, it added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It is important to note that it is rare for a baby to be born alive following termination of pregnancy. As set out in the HSE\u2019s National Clinical Practice Guideline on Investigation and Management of Complications of Early Termination of Pregnancy, the chance of an ongoing pregnancy after the administration of both mifepristone and misoprostol is less than 3pc, it added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Where survival occurs, care is provided in accordance with best clinical practice and the infant\u2019s needs, said the HSE.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Medical abortions which involve taking two medications mifepristone and misoprostol after seeing a GP is available to women who are up to 12 weeks pregnant on the day of the abortion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Anyone who is more than nine weeks pregnant, will have the medical abortion in hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Termination is also available to women in exceptional circumstances after 12 weeks if there serious risks to the life or health of the mother or the foetus has an abnormality that is likely to lead to death either before or within 28 days of birth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Deputy O\u2019Flynn said: \u201cIt is hard to fathom that babies are being born alive after abortions in Ireland and sadly you have to go round in circles just to get answers as to how the babies are treated once they come into this world. There needs to be a lot more openness surrounding the medical care given to or withheld from the babies in these appalling situations. The answer to my parliamentary question should serve as the beginning, not the end, of the flow of information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Commenting on the figures, Eil\u00eds Mulroy spokeswoman for the Pro Life Campaign said: \u201cIt is truly shocking to learn that so many babies have been born alive after abortion in Ireland and that there isn\u2019t clarity about what so-called \u201ccomfort care\u201d means and what standard of medical care is being provided to these babies. \u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">She added :\u201dWe call on the government to show much more transparency and accountability on the questions and decisions surrounding late-term abortions. The treatment of babies in these situations is first and foremost a humanitarian issue which is why it must be brought into the light.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The figures were released by the HSE in a parliamentary response to Independent Ireland TD, Ken O&#8217;Flynn. They&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,898,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-17621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-latest-news-ticker","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}