Can a woman say yes or no to any medical treatment?

Currently the Eighth Amendment means that a woman has limited rights to agree to or refuse an examination or medical treatment during pregnancy.

This creates difficulties for health professionals. They may be uncertain about a woman’s right to refuse treatment if they believe this may put the pregnancy at risk.

Voting yes means there will be no conflict in law between the health of a pregnant woman and her pregnancy. Doctors will be able to treat a pregnant woman in the same way that they would treat anyone else. All women will have the right to informed consent for any treatment, examination or procedure.

Further reading on this topic

I am a mother of 3, with her own home, job security and a supportive and loving husband, but a crisis pregnancy can happen to anyone, and everyone’s perception of a crisis is different. To outsiders the news of my pregnancy would have been met with congratulations, warm wishes and perhaps the odd jibe about how our television mustn’t work, but my husband and I were absolutely devastated.

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