A quiet war was waged against women in Ireland through the 1980s, a war few people know about. The battlefield was hospitals like Our Lady of Lourdes. Pregnant women who went to such hospitals to give birth frequently found themselves victims of symphysiotomy, a surgical procedure in which the woman's pelvis is deliberately broken by an attending physician when she is giving birth. According to a recent article in TheJournal.ie, over a hundred victims of this procedure are still seeking damages for symphysiotomies performed without their permission and even, in some cases, without their knowledge. All of them are permanently disabled as a direct result of the operation. Many cope with a lifetime limp. Others are in wheelchairs.
According to testimony from symphysiotomy survivors, Catholic, pro-life doctors performed the procedure as an alternative to the more humane caesarean section in hospitals where the delivering a live baby was the only real priority, the mother's life and welfare a distant second.
Tell Irish Minister of Health James Reilly to extend the statute of limitations on this horrible crime and enact justice for Ireland's symphysiotomy survivors!
We the undersigned are horrified to learn of the women in Ireland subjected to symphysiotomies--during an era when the civil rights movement and the sexual revolution were in full swing.
We demand justice for these women, subjected to a brutal and outdated clinical practice, probably by vengeful doctors unconcerned about the care of their patients. Most of these women are disabled, some in wheelchairs. They have endured a life of pain and limitation. They deserve answers and compensation for their suffering.
We ask that you initiate a review of all hospitals known to have practiced this brutal procedure and enact justice for the survivors!
