Vocal repealers not representative of doctors – medical council member

Doctors’ attitudes to the debate around the Eighth Amendment are unclear, with socially conservative doctors being unlikely to be outspoken on the issue, a leading member of the Irish Medical Council has said.

“It is very difficult to know where GPs stand on the ‘Repeal the Eighth’ debate,” Drogheda-based GP Dr Ruairi Hanley told The Irish Catholic.

“Certainly, there is a very vocal group who are active on social media who would be overwhelmingly in favour of the ‘repeal side’,” he continued, pointing out that such doctors are “of course entitled to their view”.

“But many GPs (myself included) are not active on social media and have no desire to discuss our opinions with strangers online,” he continued. “As a general observation social media also seems to be a very hostile place for those who would hold any form of socially conservative views on any subject.”

Dr Hanley’s comments came against a background of widespread criticism of an online poll that claimed almost three quarters of doctors support open access to abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The poll, conducted by The Irish Medical Times on Facebook, Twitter, and the publication’s website, saw 73% of 388 respondents say they supported the introduction of abortion on request in a pregnancy’s first 12 weeks.

Subsequently reported across other websites and news outlets, the story attracted a huge backlash within hours of being published, leading both The Irish Times and the Journal.ie to withdraw the story from their websites.

The Irish Examiner, however, said it was not its policy to remove stories from its website, despite a call from the Pro Life Campaign (PLC) that it retract its front-page story claiming 75% of Irish doctors support open access to abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The PLC described the story as “fake news” and accused The Irish Examiner of having “misled the public by giving [the poll] such prominence”, noting that the poll had been open to anybody.

“Anybody, not just medics, were able to vote in this poll,” PLC spokesperson Dr Ruth Cullen said. “The only criteria for voting was a Facebook or Twitter account. The flippant use of such faulty methodology doesn’t augur well for the forthcoming referendum campaign.”