“Minister Reilly must defend 8th Amendment before UN Committee,” says PLC

13^th January 2016

The Pro Life Campaign has said that the Minister for Children must ensure that his comments before a UN Human Rights Committee this week represent all children in Ireland, born and unborn.
Spokesperson Sinead Slattery said:
“The Convention on the Rights of the Child provides explicit protection for the rights of the unborn child in international human rights law, highlighting in its Preamble that the Child needs special safeguards and legal protection, ‘before as well as after birth’. The 8^th Amendment fulfils this requirement by guaranteeing the equality of the unborn child in Irish law, and protecting their most basic right of all, the right to life.
“Any criticism that the UN Committee makes of this aspect of Irish law should be roundly rejected by Minister Reilly. Instead, a robust defence of this life-saving provision should be provided as it is abundantly clear that the 8^th Amendment, the Life Equality Amendment, is responsible for saving tens of thousands of lives since its introduction.”


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RTÉ’s wall to wall bias on abortion deserves to be an election issue, says Sherlock

The Pro Life Campaign has strongly criticised RTÉ’s treatment of the abortion issue following last night’s interview on the Late Late Show with the incoming Master of the Rotunda Hospital, Professor Fergal Malone. The Pro Life Campaign accused RTÉ of repeatedly pushing the case for abortion and “censoring the devastating personal stories of women who regret their abortions and of families who came under intense and inappropriate pressure from medical staff to abort their son or daughter but refused.”

Commenting about last night’s programme, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Cora Sherlock said: “It is far from acceptable that RTÉ only ever presents the case for abortion and completely blanks the other side of the argument. The Master of the Rotunda is free if he chooses to only tell one side of the story but RTÉ is legally obliged to present both sides.”
Ms Sherlock continued: “I know several families who were pressured and in some cases literally bullied by medical staff to abort their babies but refused. I know one woman who hasn’t worked a day in over ten years after an abortion where she heard her baby cry. The heartbreak that some people experience after abortion is simply unbelievable.
“But RTÉ thinks it’s perfectly okay that these and other harrowing stories from a pro-life perspective should be censored at every turn from listeners and viewers. It is a scandal that the country’s national broadcasting station feels it can behave in such an appallingly undemocratic way.
“It has reached a point where the deep-seated bias at the heart of RTÉ deserves to be an election issue. People are tired of the wall to wall bias every day. Licence fee paying members of the public certainly deserve better. The conduct of RTÉ on abortion is shaping up to become a very big story in itself in the coming months. And that’s as it should be.”


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Minister Fitzgerald “completely out of touch with electorate on abortion”, says PLC

1st January 2016

The Pro Life Campaign has said that comments by  Minister Frances Fitzgerald and Deputy Paschal Donohoe on abortion are further proof that this Government is completely out of touch with the electorate when it comes to addressing the needs of those facing unplanned pregnancies.

Commenting as part of the PLC’s New Year message, Deputy Chairperson Cora Sherlock said:

“It’s a very sad state of affairs when the first message of the new year is one that highlights the determination of some Government Ministers to target the lives of the most vulnerable members of Irish society.  There is something very unseemly about the way Minister Frances Fitzgerald insists that Fine Gael can ‘deal with’ abortion with or without the Labour Party. Tens of thousands of people are alive in Ireland today thanks to the 8th Amendment. It is a life-saving provision, not a political football.”

“Minister Fitzgerald is being deliberately disingenuous when she distances herself from the term ‘abortion on demand’. She knows, as well as all others involved in this debate,  that any repeal or dismantling of the 8th Amendment would result in widescale abortion over time.”

In terms of what 2016 holds for the pro-life movement,  Ms. Sherlock had this to say:

“The huge numbers of people becoming involved in the Pro Life Campaign is a sign that Minister Fitzgerald and those who want to repeal the 8th Amendment are drastically out of step with the electorate. It is high time for the Government to take a step back and work on the ways they can help families keep their babies instead of constantly talking about abortion,” she concluded.

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Minister Harris’ comments on abortion “disappointing but not surprising” says PLC

 

Simon Harris went to extraordinary lengths before the last general election to court pro-life votes

The Pro Life Campaign has said the call by Minister of State Simon Harris for a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment is disappointing but not surprising. The PLC’s Deputy Chairperson, Cora Sherlock said Minister Harris’ comments are “indicative of the blinkered attitude of this Government when it comes to abortion. Instead of working to improve perinatal hospice facilities for the families of babies with life-limiting conditions, the entire focus is on the further liberalisation of abortion.”

She said: “The real tragedy here is that many families in these situations travel abroad for abortion and are devastated when they return to learn for the first time that perinatal hospice care exists as an alternative to abortion. With government ministers and others placing all the focus on abortion rather than putting resources in place for better perinatal care facilities, some families are opting for abortion that would otherwise not do so. That’s the real scandal and Minister Harris’ latest comments just add to it.
Ms Sherlock said: "Simon Harris went to extraordinary lengths before the last general election to court pro-life votes. He wasn’t just satisfied quoting the then Fine Gael commitment not to legislate for abortion. He gave his own personal commitment as well which he subsequently broke of course in 2013. His behaviour is the kind of thing that makes some people very cynical about politics. He obviously now believes it is right and proper that the law should regard unborn babies with life-limiting conditions as less worthy of legal protection than other human beings. That’s an incredible position for him to adopt but it’s the obvious logic of his position when you take a closer look. He has arrived at this position, to the best of my knowledge, without ever meeting with groups like One Day More or Every Life Counts, representing families who are devastated at the disregard and disrespect shown by politicians and commentators to their sons or daughters with life-shortening conditions. Given how he broke his pro-life promise in 2013, Minister Harris’ latest statement on abortion is disappointing but not surprising."


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BAI finds RTE programme biased in favour of abortion

 

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has found that the RTE programme “The Ray D’Arcy Show” has breached the requirements of the Broadcasting Acts for fairness, objectivity and impartiality in news and current affairs.  The programme in question was an interview with Colm O’Gorman of Amnesty Ireland.

Responding to the decision which was released today, Sinead Slattery of the Pro Life Campaign said:
“It is no surprise that a number of people pursued official complaints against RTE in relation to this particular edition of the Ray D’Arcy Show. The public are entitled to hear both sides of the story on the abortion issue.  It does a grave disservice to listeners when the state-funded broadcaster pushes one agenda.  The Ray D’Arcy Show has continually failed to seek interviews with women who regret their abortions or women who gave birth to babies with life-limiting conditions despite a difficult pre-natal diagnosis.   It’s not good enough.”
Quoting from the BAI decision which said that listeners to the Ray D’Arcy Show ‘would have reasonably concluded that the presenter endorsed the views of his interviewee and was articulating a partisan position’, she concluded:
“It is our hope that this decision will set down a marker for the way in which the abortion issue is dealt with by all sections of the Irish media.  The public deserves to hear both sides of the story.”


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PLC says Belfast High Court judgement “sets value of unborn child at zero”

In the High Court in Belfast today, Mr Justice Mark Horner, held that the abortion legislation in Northern Ireland breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by not allowing abortion in certain circumstances. The challenge to Northern Ireland’s abortion law was taken by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

Responding to Belfast’s High Court ruling, Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro Life Campaign said:

“The only way Mr Justice Horner could have reached the decision he did is by absolutely side-stepping the fact that an innocent unborn child is also present whenever abortion is considered. It is simply not the case, as the judge says, that for an unborn baby with a limiting condition, ‘there is no life to protect.’ His comments fly in the face of all the evidence and are deeply hurtful to families of babies diagnosed with life shortening conditions. The judge in this case has set the value of the unborn child at zero and ignored the well documented negative after effects of abortion for many women.

“Today’s outcome is a reminder that abortion allows some human lives to be judged less worthy of legal protection. It is the role of the judicial system to uphold and protect basic human rights like the right to life. Today’s decision means that in the eyes of the court certain categories of human beings are not deserving of legal protection. That’s a very frightening development.
“The decision is also inconsistent with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the fact that there is no right to abortion in international human rights law.
“Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights protects against ‘inhumane and degrading treatment’, but abortion itself is inhumane and degrading to the unborn child whose life is ended. This is the reality which the judge did not acknowledge but which must now be discussed”, Dr Cullen concluded.
The Pro Life Campaign has welcomed the news that Northern Ireland’s Attorney General John Larkin is likely to challenge the decision.


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Free vote on abortion will not reassure pro-life supporters, says PLC

The Pro Life Campaign has said that the Taoiseach’s offer of a free vote on abortion will do little to reassure those who want to see unborn babies protected in Ireland.

Commenting on the 26/11/2015, Pro Life Campaign Deputy Chairperson Cora Sherlock said:
“The Taoiseach’s comments have been reported as something dramatic and ground-breaking.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The suggestion that the abortion issue could be referred to a “Citizens’ Convention” will remind many of the charade in 2013, when expert evidence presented at two sets of Oireachtas Hearings was ignored by the Government who went ahead and introduced abortion.
“By all means, let the Taoiseach make a dramatic statement on abortion. Let him address the fact that repealing the 8^th Amendment would mean removing the basic right to life from our Constitution. Let him explain why seriously ill unborn children are having their lives targeted by some members of his Government, including the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.  And let him address the serious human rights abuses that abortion has led to in other countries.  Answers to these questions, and others like them, are what the public really needs to hear,” she concluded.


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