Labour cannot run and hide from the horrors of abortion, says PLC

The Pro Life Campaign has taken issue with the Labour Party’s blinkered stance on abortion as presented at today’s press launch of its campaign to repeal the 8^th Amendment.

Commenting on the launch, Deputy Chairperson of the Pro Life Campaign, Cora Sherlock said:

“The thing that stands out about today’s launch by the Labour Party is the complete absence of any mention of the unborn child’s right to life, the devastating effects of abortion on many women or the pressures that some parents are coming under to abort their baby when he or she is diagnosed with a life-limiting condition.
“Do they seriously think they can run and hide and ignore the grave injustice that abortion involves and its long-lasting effects? The horror of abortion and the hurt and heartbreak it causes cannot be sidestepped in this shameful way.”


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PLC challenges Minister Reilly over call for repeal of 8th Amendment

The Pro Life Campaign has criticised the Minister for Children, James Reilly, over remarks he made in a Sunday newspaper, calling for repeal of the 8th Amendment.

Commenting on the interview, Pro Life Campaign Deputy Chairperson, Cora Sherlock said:

“It doesn’t surprise me in the least that Minister Reilly is seeking to present repeal of the 8th Amendment as an extremely restrictive measure. Every time he talks about changes to Ireland’s abortion laws he goes out of his way to stress that he doesn’t want to see an ‘abortion on demand’ regime here.
“He kept repeating this same line over and over again when as Minister for Health he introduced the controversial 2013 abortion law, a law that incidentally allows abortion up to birth based on a threat of suicide, even though medical evidence shows that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal feelings. Sadly, abortions have already taken place as a result of this law and babies have lost their lives. But there doesn’t appear to be any time to pause and reflect on this stark reality as the Minister and others focus on removing the 8th Amendment, which provides the last remaining protection for the unborn child.”
She continued:
“It is an appalling tragedy that families of babies with life-limiting conditions are returning home after aborting their child to discover when it is too late about the existence of perinatal palliative care as an alternative to abortion, where parents and families of babies with a terminal illness receive the supports and help to care for their son or daughter for whatever short length of time they survive. But with the focus almost exclusively on repeal of the 8th Amendment this life-affirming and positive side of the story is not getting the attention it deserves.
“Minister Reilly never turns down an opportunity to talk about widening the grounds for abortion but he has no track record on delivering proper perinatal palliative care provision in Ireland. He would be better served devoting some time to this as well as listening to parents who were pressured to go down the road of abortion in similar situations and now deeply regret the decision.”
Ms Sherlock concluded:
“The drop in support for abortion reflected in today’s Sunday Independent/Millward Brown poll is encouraging.”


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Letter published by Amnesty International does a disservice to Ireland’s doctors, says PLC

“Amnesty ignores Ireland’s outstanding record in maternal healthcare,” says Sherlock

The Pro Life Campaign has said the open letter from doctors published on the 20/11/2015 as part of Amnesty’s campaign for wider access to abortion ignores the excellent work being done by doctors in Ireland in protecting the lives of pregnant women.
Commenting on the letter, Deputy Chairperson of the PLC Cora Sherlock said:
“The latest attempt by Amnesty to push for the liberalisation of Ireland’s abortion laws seeks to depict abortion as ‘healthcare’ when in reality it is nothing of the sort.  All it does is end the life of an unborn baby.
“Ireland’s doctors are world leaders when it comes to safeguarding the lives of pregnant women. This fact was re-stated in the most recent report on international maternal mortality, where Ireland ranks far above, for example, the US, a country where abortion is widely available and where some of the signatories to Amnesty’s open letter come from.  There is no mention of Ireland’s outstanding record in maternal care in Amnesty’s letter.  This does a huge disservice to doctors in Ireland who work hard on a daily basis to maintain our impressive international record.
“Today’s open letter represents a further attempt by Amnesty to comment only on carefully selected aspects of the abortion debate. When an article appeared in a prominent newspaper last week, highlighting the fact that babies who survive abortion attempts are left to die alone in hospital corners, there was no open letter from Amnesty.  The public will be asking why a group set up to protect human rights is not insisting that abortion providers explain this human rights abuse,” she concluded.


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Abortions taking place on “suicide” ground expose deep seated flaws in new legislation, says PLC

“No one claimed abortion floodgates would open overnight” – Dr Ruth Cullen

The Pro Life Campaign has said the fact that a number of abortions have already taken place using the ‘suicide’ ground brings to light the entrenched problems with the legislation introduced by the present government in 2013. Three recorded terminations took place on the suicide grounds in the period January-July 2014. No figures have been released for the number of abortions since then. In recent days, outgoing Master of the Rotunda Hospital, Dr Sam Coulter Smith, criticised the new abortion legislation, primarily on the grounds that it set no time limits for when abortions can take place. He said however that he overestimated the number of abortions that would occur on the suicide ground and that the “floodgates” had not opened as predicted.

Commenting on the impact of the new law, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson, Dr Ruth Cullen said: “Within months of the new law being activated three pregnancies were terminated on the ‘suicide’ ground resulting in the intentional ending of unborn human life. The loss of even one life is a tragedy but the fact that we now have a law that facilitates the taking of human life, with the full knowledge that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal feelings, is shameful in the extreme.
“No one on the pro-life side forecast that the floodgates to wide-ranging abortion would happen overnight. Our criticism of the new law was that over time it would normalise abortions taking place on the ‘suicide’ ground given that the decision to carry out an abortion does not have to be based on any medical evidence showing that the intervention was necessary to save the life of the mother. Sadly, it has already been shown that abortions are taking place using this bogus ground despite all the reassurances given by the Taoiseach that it wouldn’t happen.”


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Abortion and "healthcare": dispelling the myths

by Clare Cromie

Recently I stopped to have a conversation with a young man raising funds for Amnesty International on College Green. We bantered back and forth about what it really meant to be a person, and why babies didn’t make the cut. His response was telling and it put me on the back foot.

He summed up Amnesty International’s recent push to introduce abortion to Ireland as not rejecting the essential humanity of the developing fetus, per se. Instead, he insisted, it was just “really all about healthcare.”

It’s easy to find yourself on the back foot when abortion is introduced as simply a “healthcare” measure. Healthcare, you see, has such immensely positive, humanitarian connotations. How can a person really argue against providing access to healthcare?

It’s important to recognize that the “abortion as healthcare” line is not new to the political discourse. But, is it true? Can abortion really be called healthcare?

If we look at the definition of healthcare in any number of established dictionaries, the answer has to be - absolutely not. Cambridge defines healthcare as “the set of services provided by a country or an organization for the treatment of the physically and the mentally ill.” Abortion is factually the exact opposite of healthcare; rather than treating ill health, it purposefully takes the life of a human being.

The concept that abortion is healthcare because it serves the health and mental well-being of the mother (rather than preference or convenience whether her own, her partner’s, or society’s) also deserves scrutiny. Treatments that ended a pregnancy that were necessary to save a woman’s life were always permitted in Ireland.  We also know that there is no medical evidence to suggest abortion as a treatment for suicide or mental health problems, in fact quite the opposite. We know that post-abortive stress syndrome is a significant threat to women’s mental health.

It is our duty to call attention to these fallacies and carefully and respectfully steer the conversation back towards objective truths. Truths about what abortion is - the termination of the life of a human being - and what it is not. We know for example that abortion is not an evidence-based treatment for suicidal ideation. We know for example that abortion does not eliminate the pain of an infant’s life-limiting diagnosis for his or her mother and father.

We know that all of us at some stage in our lives will receive news of life limiting diagnoses for either ourselves or for our loved ones. While this will never be welcome news, we know that all human beings, regardless of their age or diagnosis, deserve respectful, end-of-life palliative and hospice care. We also know that meeting your baby and holding him or her in your arms is not accurately described as “torture.” We know that Ireland tops global statistics for excellence in maternal health.

Playing around with the meaning of the term “healthcare” is not a small matter of semantics. Abortion advocates are attempting to shroud abortion in the same positive humanitarian halo with which actual healthcare is rightly associated. Let’s challenge this misappropriation, arm ourselves with the facts and have the courage to add our voices to the conversation.

"Taoiseach Faces FG Revolt Over Party's Abortion Position"

Irish Independent 7th March 2015

Interesting that three reporters contributed to the above-named piece in today's Irish Independent and yet there is not a single on the record quote from anyone in Fine Gael,  just a "senior FG source". So there is zero justification for the headline "Taoiseach Faces FG Revolt Over Party's Abortion Position."

Now that an impression has been created by the piece that Fine Gael fear they will lose votes for not being pro-abortion enough, Regina Doherty or one of her Fine Gael colleagues is sure to go on the record to back up what some of their pals in the media have said. 

Sadly the abortion debate has now become utterly predictable and one-sided. The reality is FG lost lots of votes in the local abortion for breaking its pro-life promise. The same is going to happen in the general election. The Dublin media bubble might think otherwise but the votes Fine Gael in December 2012 after announcing they were legislating for abortion will not be won back even if they try and rebrand the Taoiseach as pro-life as it appears some are trying to do. 

Read the piece here  

Labour’s meltdown and the election results – what it means for the pro-life cause

The results of the European and local elections are further proof that in politics nothing is set in stone. Just when you think certain things are settled everything can change. It is important to get to the heart of what the results mean and not to overstate the pro-life political implications.

While there were some disappointing results, a significant number of new councillors were also elected who are immediately identifiable as strongly pro-life from their vocal opposition to the recent abortion legislation. This is a really encouraging development.

The Labour Party meltdown and resignation of its party leader, Eamon Gilmore, will also have far-reaching political consequences. While the primary reason for the collapse in Labour’s vote was economic, it also showed that their strident pro-abortion stance didn’t shield them in the slightest from voter anger over their promise-breaking.

Labour Party Leader Eamon Gilmore announces his resignation yesterday

The story regarding Fine Gael is quite different. While the principal driver of Fine Gael’s seat losses had to do with the economy, without question, the drop in their support was compounded by their betrayal of the pro-life movement. A number of media commentators pointed this out over the weekend. The fact that upwards of 15,000 people turned out for the recent National Vigil for Life in Dublin was a good pre-election gauge of the level of pro-life feeling around the country. Even if Fine Gael is unwilling to admit it, they know they lost tens of thousands of votes as a direct result of breaking their promise not to introduce abortion. This undoubtedly cost them numerous seats.

It is also great news that so many of the newly elected Fianna Fáil and Independent councillors are strongly pro-life. We base this on the fact that they either attended our vigils or have spoken out publicly on the issue in the recent past. Another straw in the wind was the re-election of Deputy Terence Flanagan’s brother Declan as a councillor for the Beaumont Donaghmede electoral area. Following Deputy Flanagan's expulsion from the Fine Gael parliamentary party for voting with his conscience against abortion, it is no secret that senior members of Fine Gael did all they could to scupper Declan’s chances of re-election.

Deputy Terence Flanagan

There were many other hopeful results like former Minister Mary Hanafin’s victory and the election of a number of Green Party pro-life candidates. Another success story was the victory of an Independent Fine Gael candidate who had resigned from Fine Gael over abortion and came close to topping the poll in his electoral area.

And there were dramatic finishes for two of the candidates we recommended last week. One was elected by 3 votes, the other by 2. The next time someone tells you there is no point in voting, remind them of these neck and neck contests!

The fact that Senator Rónán Mullen didn’t succeed in getting elected in the Midlands North West constituency is obviously disappointing. While ‘Ming’ Flanagan’s entry into the race was a factor, it was clear from the outset that Rónán’s key problem was low ‘name recognition’ in such a massive constituency.  This is something he can certainly address – as shown in the Seanad elections which he contested and won so comprehensively.

Senator Rónán Mullen

All in all, the election results are more encouraging than many expected. But a word of caution is in order – while many genuinely pro-life councillors were elected, there were others with no track record on the issue who described themselves as ‘pro-life’ simply to court votes. We must be clear in distinguishing one from the other.

The key to real progress is brutal honesty about where things stand and avoiding exaggerated claims at all costs. We need to focus on the many good results from this election and build on them. In addition to these positive outcomes, it is likely that a new politics of trustworthiness will soon emerge as members of the Oireachtas who broke ranks with their party over abortion present an alternative to the electorate.

The scale of the Labour meltdown and the speed of the political fallout remind us that a week is most definitely a long time in politics. This should be a constant encouragement to us never to give up and to stay the course until the right to life is fully protected.

Cora Sherlock is Deputy Chairperson of the Pro Life Campaign.