A senior pharmacist has asked health minister Simon Harris (pictured) to protect conscience rights of healthcare professionals.

Dr James Carr, who practises in Louth, has said that all abortion methods provided for in the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy bill involve prescribing, dispensing, and administering medication.

Pharmacists therefore will play a critical role in any future abortion regime, he said.

Interferes

“In its current form, the legislation interferes with the exercise of pharmacists’ professional clinical judgement and denies their freedom of conscience. 

“Freedom of conscience is recognised and protected under Article 44.2.1 of Bunreacht na hÉireann and Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights,” he said. 

Carr believes that the legislation will “infringe in a most profound way the conscience rights of pharmacists who sincerely oppose abortion.”

Amend legislaiton

He has asked the Dáil health committee to amend the legislation to protect the conscience rights of hospital and community pharmacists by creating an 'opt-in' system for abortion services established under the new law. 

Dr Carr said the health minister has failed to consider the most basic practical issue of how the medications used in abortions will be provided and dispensed and has neglected to consult with healthcare professionals on this “fundamental change in healthcare ethics and practice”.