DISGRACEFUL: Irish Abortion Committee votes for abortion on demand up to 12 weeks
The committee which was set up to consider a report by the Citizens' Assembly on abortion law in Ireland, has voted in favour of stripping the unborn child of all legal protection. The cross-party group is strongly in favour of repealing the 8th amendment to the Constitution of Ireland.
The 8th amendment acknowledges "the right to life of the unborn and with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother".
Committee members voted 14-6 to recommend to the Oireachtas (parliament) yesterday to repeal the 8th amendment, and voted 12-5 to recommend to allow terminations without restrictions up to 12 weeks.
Director of Precious Life Bernadette Smyth said today that yesterday’s vote was an “extraordinary decision” which “provides abortion on demand for any reason whatsoever." The Precious Life Director slammed the appalling vote, labelling it "a total betrayal of women and their unborn babies."
“The heinous reality that there’s no conditionality in it whatsoever makes it one of the most liberal abortion regimes in Europe. It’s a terrifying prospect – if the eighth amendment is not retained, Dublin will likely become the abortion capital of Europe. The people of Ireland need to rise up and defend the right to life, and reject this truly disgraceful, backwards and barbaric agenda,” said Mrs Smyth.
“When it comes to this issue, we see no border. If the right to life is undermined in the South of Ireland, it is certain that we will see the same frivolous disregard for human life here in the North also. We stand united as a pro-life movement North and South, and we will fight to save the eighth amendment and protect every unborn child in this country who has a right to live. Life is not just for the planned, the perfect or the privileged.”
On October 18th the Oireachtas Committee had “already voted and determined” that they would repeal the Eighth, however it only emerged yesterday that they are recommending abortion for any reason whatsoever up to 12 weeks in pregnancy. At this stage, the unborn child has fingerprints and fingernails, and all organs have been in place for over a month. The committee believes that these defenceless, fully formed unborn children can be torn apart and dumped in the trash. The decision is truly a disgraceful one.
“Really what has been made abundantly clear here is that this was never about the hard cases. For so long, abortion advocates in this country have exploited these marginal cases, such as ‘fatal foetal abnormality’ to argue for a broad-based abortion platform. What we now know is that the end goal of this deeply flawed and biased committee was always abortion on demand, for any reason, up to birth. It is beyond heinous,” the Precious Life Director said today.
The bias of the committee set up to examine the 8th amendment to the Irish Constitution has been thinly veiled since its inception, with just 4 pro-life speakers present compared to a staggering 24 pro-abortion speakers.
In November, the abortion committee was blasted by a US medical professor (who had been invited to address the committee) who aptly named it a “kangaroo court” due to its incredulous imbalance and refusal to give any attention or consideration to the unborn child. Professor Marty McCaffrey said: "There's lots of evidence from the other side about the injur and the damage that would be done by abortion not only for women, but also to infants that would be aborted, but also for future infants who would be born prematurely that that committee never got a chance to hear.
"That testimony and that medical evidence which is well documented in the scientific literature never came out,” Mr McCaffrey said.
If the referendum were to pass, it could very possibly mean women in Northern Ireland would be able to cross the border for an abortion rather than having abortions in the UK. In today’s Irish News, Clare Bailey welcomed the decision saying: "This is a really positive development. That the committee have adopted the recommendations of the citizens' assembly is to be welcomed.”
The proposal to strip the unborn children of this country of their inherent right to life, she labelled, “a positive step.” “As it stands women are still forced to leave home in distressing circumstances to access healthcare, whereas should this pass at referendum stage, they will be able to access that healthcare within the island of Ireland,” Ms Bailey said today. Of course, in reality, abortion is not healthcare. Pregnancy is not an illness or a disease; abortion tears an innocent child limb from limb, taking the life of the unborn child, and destroying the lives of countless women and men. The damage done to Ireland if the eighth amendment were to go would be truly inconceivable; it would be unimaginably detrimental.
“Why anyone would want to repeal the right to life? To put the right to life of children in Ireland to a vote is truly a tragedy. If the eighth amendment is repealed, that means that we have adopted a regime which is even more liberal and cruel than the UK’s 1967 Abortion Act,” Mrs Smyth said in her comments today.
“Pro-life advocates both North and South will now accelerate our efforts, in light of this abysmal decision, to educate the public on the brutal reality of abortion, its horrifying effects on women and men, and we will fight harder than ever before to save the eighth. The Irish people will have the final say.” Mrs Smyth concluded.