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Saturday, March 16, 2013

New data: 330 million abortions carried out in China since 1971


Nearly 330 million abortions have been performed in China in the past 40 years, official data shows.
Data posted on the health ministry website shows that from 1971 through 2010 a total of 328.9 million abortions were carried out in the country. 
A quarter of Chinese women of reproductive age have had at least one abortion. 
China says that its One Child Policy introduced in the early 1980s has prevented overpopulation, but the policy has led to horrifying practices of forced abortion. Women are forcibly removed from their homes and their babies aborted against their will. Some of these cases have involved women as far along as 9 months in their pregnancies. 

In 2009, there were 35,000 forced abortions performed on Chinese women every day.  


Human rights groups have criticised these harsh enforcement methods. Groups like Women's Rights Without Frontiers and activists like Reggie Littlejohn and Chen Guangcheng are attempting to attract international attention on these human and civil rights abuses. 

Reggie Littlejohn

The One Child Policy has also contributed to the practice of gendercide. With a cultural preference for boys, and the freedom to only have one child, many parents abort female children, or commit infanticide shortly after birth. This has led to a great imbalance, with 120 males born for every 100 girls.  
Despite increasing international outrage, the Chinese Government is resistant to abolishing the One Child Policy. Women's Rights Without Frontiers and other groups are extremely concerned that no significant changes appear to be on the horizon for the One Child Policy. Recent statements by Wang Xia, the Chairman of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, the China "must unwaveringly adhere to the One Child Policy as a national policy" indicate that the current system of coerced and violence enforcement and forced abortions will continue for some time. 

Friday, March 8, 2013

PLC calls Government’s decision on abortion “highly objectionable” for ignoring the evidence from the Oireachtas hearings


Responding to reports that the Government has told the Council of Europe that it will enact legislation for the X case before the end of July, Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro Life Campaign said:

“It is also unacceptable the way the Government is acting as though it is obliged to introduce abortion on foot of the European court decision in A, B and C v. Ireland. The ECHR called on Ireland to clarify its position regarding treatment of women in pregnancy. It did not compel us to introduce abortion as members of government continue to imply." 

“The Pro Life Campaign will intensify its campaign in the coming weeks to present to the public the true reality of what X case legislation would mean in practice.”

“The Government’s plan to press ahead with legislation for the X case is highly objectionable since the argument that abortion is a treatment for suicidal ideation was completely undermined by the expert psychiatric evidence at the recent Oireachtas hearings on the issue. Far from helping women, abortion increases the risk of future mental health problems for a significant number of women. It is a disgrace how senior members of the Government are choosing to ignore this reality." 

Your TDs and Senators need to hear from you. Order postcards here - http://www.prolifecampaign.ie/postcard-campaign.htm - to tell them that you don't want abortion legalised along the grounds of the X Case.


The recent pro-life vigil in January.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

New 60-year review of Irish maternal deaths show no suicides because of pregnancy

No evidence that suicide is a treatment for pregnant suicidal women - Government must not mislead women that abortion prevents suicide


A new and groundbreaking study of every maternal death that occurred in Dublin's three maternity hospitals between 1950 and 2011 has found that no woman died by suicide because she was pregnant.
The study, on suicide in pregnancy, examined the Mater's Reports relating to over 1 million pregnant women linked to the three Dublin maternity hospitals.
It shows that in total there were 394 maternal deaths. Of these, 5 died by suicide - one died during pregnancy (at 30 weeks gestation), while four died shortly after giving birth.
Vitally and crucially, the data, obtained from these reports, shows that the five women who died by suicide did NOT do so because of their pregnancy but because of problems external to it such as mental illness.
Importantly in the context of the present debate, the records cover a period that begins almost 20 years before the liberalisation of the British abortion laws in 1967.
This makes it much harder to claim that suicidal pregnant women in the first part of the period under examination were going to Britain for abortions.



The study was carried out by Professor Patricia Casey, of UCD and the Mater Misericoradiae University hospital. She is an internationally recognised researcher and clinical practitioner in the area of suicide and self-harm. 

Prof Casey said: "It demonstrates that suicide in pregnancy is extremely rare and suicide as a result of the pregnancy itself, as distinct from some other social or health problem that preceded the pregnancy or developed during the pregnancy, is unheard of."

"It is thus misleading to suggest that abortion is necessary to prevent suicide in pregnancy, a view that was confirmed by the perinatal psychiatrists at the Heath Committee hearings on abortion in January. They confirmed that they had never seen a case where abortion was the only intervention to treat a pregnant suicidal woman,” Prof Casey said.
She also pointed to the written submission of St. Patrick's Hospital to the Committee, which also stated that there is no evidence supporting the view that abortion is a treatment for any mental health problem or behaviour.

Professor Casey also drew attention to the written submission of Professor Kevin Malone, Professor of Psychiatry at UCD and St. Vincent's Hospital, and a leading international researcher in the field of suicide risk and prediction, who wrote that suicide cannot be predicted with any degree of accuracy that would satisfy a legislative test.

He also expressed concern that legislating for abortion on the grounds of suicide risk “inexplicably legitimizes and normalizes "suicidality" under certain conditions - for women only”. This, he said, would have the unintended consequence of exacerbating the risk of suicide among men.
Professor Casey said that the Government, by its laws, must not ask psychiatry to mislead women in believing that abortion prevents suicide.

“It is imperative that any decision on the resolution of the Government’s issue in relation to the X case must be based on medical research and evidence. The clinical facts and international experience clearly show that legislation, no matter how limited, actually promotes widespread abortion.

“As a doctor with many years of experience of health services in Ireland and the UK, I know that, for any given service, the volume of any treatment provided is most closely correlated with its availability. Once the service is available, it will be used,” she said.

Read a report about the study in today's Irish Independent here