Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-04
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Holly Cairns (SD), Cork South-West

Denise Whitmore was absolutely devastated when she learned at a routine scan in November 2024 that her baby's brain had not developed and that the condition was fatal. After a lot of consideration, Denise and her husband Mark made the heartbreaking decision to terminate the pregnancy but because doctors could not be absolutely certain her baby would die within 28 days, as is required by current legislation, Denise was forced to travel to the UK for treatment.
To say it was not an easy journey is an understatement. Denise was six months pregnant and was bleeding from an additional complication of a low-lying placenta. On the day they were due to travel, their ferry to Holyhead was cancelled. This meant travelling to Pembroke instead, followed by a five-hour car journey to Liverpool. Once they were at the hospital, doctors stopped the baby's heart and Denise prepared to give birth, but she began to haemorrhage. She lost five units of blood, causing her body to go into shock. Doctors were forced to do an emergency C-section, and they had to warn Denise in advance that they may need to do a hysterectomy to stop the bleeding. When Éadha was born, Denise and Mark spent some time with their daughter in the hospital.
As if all of this was not hard enough, they then had to think about the legality of getting home. A consultant in Liverpool warned them to put Éadha's body in the boot of their car and smuggle her back to Ireland, but they could not bring themselves to do that. When they got to the ferry, Mark declared they were bringing their daughter home, and they were gripped by fear that they might be arrested. This legislation is inhumane. If it were not for a kind worker at the ferry terminal allowing them to travel, they would not have been able to bring Éadha home to meet her three-year-old brother and the rest of her family.
Denise's trauma did not end there. Despite having major surgery in the UK, there was zero follow-up care for her in Ireland. Even when she presented to a bereavement midwife to get counselling, she was told it was not available. Denise and her family were on their own. Every year, 240 women have to travel to the UK to access abortion care; each one with their own story of grief, trauma and sheer horror at what they are forced to go through. It is a complete and utter disgrace.
An expert report recommending clarity on the provision of care in cases of foetal abnormality and the end to criminalisation of doctors was published in April 2023. For three years, the Government has ignored these recommendations-----

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-04