The terrible toll of mixing religion and medicine in Ireland [View all]

[theHandpuppet]

I posted a thread to Women’s Rights & Issues group concerning a newly published article about a horrific birthing practice in Ireland and the victims who are just now coming forward.
See: http://www.democraticunderground.com/11384995

At the time I posted that thread I was completely unaware of the practice of symphysiotomy, a barbaric medical procedure outlawed many years ago by most countries but which continued in Ireland until about 1980, thanks to the Catholic Church’s insistence that women bear as many children as possible.

Since I posted that thread I have been reading up on the subject. Be warned – most of the stories you will read at these links are ghastly. If this doesn’t enrage you, if this doesn’t make you demand an end to the meddling of religion in medicine, if this doesn’t shame Ireland into granting full reproductive rights for women even in the face of fierce religious opposition, nothing will.

The following articles appear in The Irish Times…
WARNING -- GRAPHIC.
http://www.thejournal.ie/a-history-of-symphysiotomy-the-impact-of-catholic-ethics-on-irish-medicine-685296-Nov2012/
http://www.thejournal.ie/symphysiotomy-ward-1587477-Jul2014/
http://www.thejournal.ie/compensation-scheme-symphysiotomy-1548064-Jul2014/
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/symphysiotomy-documentary-673097-Nov2012/
http://www.thejournal.ie/symphysiotomy-un-1355549-Mar2014/
http://www.thejournal.ie/symphysiotomy-survivors-petition-messages-858418-Apr2013/

Here’s one small excerpt and I deliberately chose one that was not too gruesome for the unprepared reader:
http://www.thejournal.ie/symphysiotomy-uncat-1356352-Jul2014/
Hannah
De Valera said, ‘I’d like it [the baby] to come on naturally.’ I was almost a week at home, I was small, and the baby was getting bigger and bigger. I went in again – they induced me. ‘I normally do a Caesarean section,’ De Valera said, ‘but because you are such a good a Catholic, I’ll do a symphysiotomy, you’re a Catholic family, you’d be expected to have at least ten – if you have a Caesarean, you can only have three. And, as a Catholic, you need to go through the pains of childbirth – if you had a Caesarean, you wouldn’t. The baby is as big as yourself – why do small women marry big men? I’ll have to stretch your hips and straighten your pelvis. I’d no idea what a symphysiotomy was.’