Together for Yes launch campaign advocating for repeal of the eighth amendment
The former master of the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street has said the Eighth Amendment has caused grave harm to many, including death. Peter Boylan also said the amendment has not achieved the original aim of its supporters, which he said was to prevent women in Ireland from having abortions. This is despite the fact that the eighth has quite literally saved hundreds of thousands of lives by prohibiting abortions, and therefore encouraging women in crisis pregnancies to choose life for their babies. Ireland has a legal and cultural respect for all life, stemming directly from the eighth amendment and an unequivocal rejection of abortion - due to our pro-life laws, we also have one of one of the highest maternal health rates in the entire world. Surely there is something to be said for this?
Mr Boylan was speaking at Friday's launch of the 'Together for Yes' campaign, which is advocating for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment in the upcoming referendum. The group consits of different groups unashamedly seeking the repeal of the right to life, including the Rape Crisis Network, Women's Aid, the Irish Family Planning Association and the Union of Students in Ireland. It also has cross-party support.
A number of politicians were present at the event including Minister for Health Simon Harris, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, Labour TD Joan Burton, Green Party TD Catherine Martin, Solidarity/PBP TD Bríd Smith and Independent Senator Lynn Ruane. This of course, comes as no suprise, seeing as the repeal campaign has garnered the vast support of Ireland's elite political establishment - to the detrimental repercussion of ignoring the majority of normal Irish people who are increasingly supportive of retaining the eighth and seeking a better answer than abortion.
Save the 8th released a statement addressing the launch: “What we saw today was the Ireland of Together for Yes. It is the Ireland where ministers and politicians drop by to launch abortion campaigns in maternity hospitals while their drivers wait in the state cars outside. It is the Ireland where taxpayer funded lobbyists mingle and move, the Ireland where newspaper columnists feel most at home, and the Ireland that talks about abortion without ever mentioning the baby."
Ms McDonald said her party's position on the removal of the Eighth Amendment was clear and members would be out campaigning for it. She said it was time to trust women and to protect them. Surely, if repealers trusted women, they would be honest about what happens the baby during abortion.
The event took place at the Pillar Room on the grounds of the Rotunda Hospital. In a statement, the Rotunda Hospital said the room is operated by the Rotunda Foundation, which is "completely independent" of the hospital. It said is has no influence over the control of the Pillar Room and said it wishes to make clear that the hospital does not support any political organisation or agenda.
Save the 8th continued: "This is a campaign that supports abortion at any time, for any reason, without restriction. It is the embodiment of the one per cent who think they know better than everyone else. It is the Ireland that the public has rightly grown to despise, and it has come together to support a proposal that it has cooked up all by itself. The public did not demand this referendum – it was the concern of 2% of the voters in the RTE exit poll in 2016."
The Save the 8th Campaign also blasted Together for Yes as "slick, well-funded with untraceable money." In their press release, they described the group as having "the support of everyone in Dublin who they believe to be important. It is a movement of elites, for the elites, and by the elites. They are totally out of touch with the mainstream of this country, and this campaign will prove that to be the case. We have asked voters to join a rebellion – and that rebellion is growing stronger every day.”