Why I'm Going To Celebrate The 8th...by Sinead Slattery

The 8^th Amendment ensures the equal right to life and importance of all Irish citizens – both the life of the mother and the life of her baby.

I have listened very carefully to the testimonies of Irish women who face a crisis pregnancy and I believe we need to work far harder to find better and more civilised ways to respect and understand their circumstances and concerns in this difficult situation. Despite all of the conversation and debate surrounding the 8^th Amendment, the only government report commissioned to identify the factors which contribute to the incidence of unwanted pregnancies and the issues which resulted in women choosing the option of abortion was in 1995 (Women and Crisis Pregnancy Mahon, Conlon and Dillion).

We need a new report and we need a truly enhanced and sincere pro-women environment where women don’t feel like they have no other choice than the option of abortion. I care about women’s rights very deeply and it is my view that women should not have to decide between having their baby or finishing college; having their baby or choosing their career; having a baby or paying unaffordable childcare costs. 

I find it deeply disturbing that should a women experience regret, distress or physical side effects following this procedure, such as preterm birth in her next pregnancy; she is told that it is her fault. She is told that she either has a severe mental illness, she was coerced into the procedure by someone else or she had a negative attitude to abortion to begin with. No accountability is taken by those who carried out the abortion even if the procedure results in her dying in the back of a taxi. Liberalising abortion does not solve the underlying issue, it merely masks it and in my view, women deserve better than this.

We have shown the world that we are a humane society which stands up for the rights of every individual, especially minority groups. The 8^th Amendment is a proof point of this as it ensures that each human being in any Irish hospital is given equal medical care and goodwill regardless of their health, their ability and their gender.  This is not the case in many countries where children who have been given a diagnosis before they are born of potentially having a life limiting condition, a disability or they are simply identified as being female.  Whether they are allowed to be born is something which will be decided upon at the discretion of another.

We cannot deny the devastating effects that this would have on our society should we repeal the 8^th Amendment and liberalise abortion. We only have to look to other countries to see the devastation that abortion wreaks on human dignity. One in every four human lives are ended in England and Wales before they’ve had a chance to be born. Denmark has set itself a goal to be Down Syndrome free by 2030 and over 160 million baby girls are aborted in countries and cultures where baby boys are revered more highly than baby girls. 

To infer that abortion can be restricted is misleading for many reasons. One example of this is the interpretation of wording e.g. in England and Wales, a cleft palate and club foot are deemed “severe disability” and therefore any baby diagnosed with those conditions can be aborted right up until birth.

I am in favour of choice…but I don’t know any human being that would choose the ending of their own lives, often times very violently, at someone else’s discretion. So if we wouldn’t choose it for ourselves, then why choose it on behalf of the smallest, youngest most vulnerable in our society?

The unborn don’t have a voice, they’re too small. They need yours and they need the protection of the constitution and it is for this reason that I’m going to be there on June 4^th to help celebrate the 8^th Amendment and find out how I can use my talents to help protect this life-saving provision.

Excellent 4 minute video on current Irish abortion debate

Check out this great new video on YouTube.  It addresses some of the key questions raised in the abortion debate in Ireland and features very moving personal stories.  

Click below to watch and then please share the video on facebook, twitter and other social networks. 

Mother refused abortion three times, gives birth to healthy baby girl

Carrie Chilvers was told three times to have an abortion. 


She refused, and it saved her daughter’s life.

Carrie and daughter Elizabeth, aged 6 months

At her 12 week scan at Colchester General Hospital, doctors told Carrie that there was only 20% chance that her baby would survive. They added that even if the baby did survive they would be severely disabled. Doctors recommended abortion to Ms. Chilvers three times. Although she was distraught at hearing the news, Carrie refused to give up on her unborn child and sought a second opinion. She then had wait five weeks before a second scan gave her baby the all-clear.

Ms Chilvers said: “If I had listened to them I would not have my beautiful baby girl. If I had a termination Elizabeth would not be here... I was told three times to have an abortion. They said there was only a 20 per cent chance when I gave birth she would still be alive and she had a cystic hygroma, a growth on the neck.”

Carrie was also told that if her baby survived, it would have Down's syndrome, Turner's syndrome or a chromosome deficiency. 

But Elizabeth was born in January, a 5lb 4oz healthy baby girl.  

Brendan O’Connor’s inspiring article on the birth of his daughter with Down Syndrome

On 12th September, the Sunday Independent carried an inspiring article, ‘A prayer for my daughter’ by its columnist and RTÉ personality, Brendan O’Connor, on the birth only weeks before of his second daughter, Mary. It evoked a huge reaction from readers – the following week, 13 of the letters received were published.

The day before the Irish Independent’s Weekend magazine had carried another shorter, yet profound article by columnist, Mary Kenny, about looking after her husband who is deteriorating following a stroke.

What the articles have in common is a visceral bluntness, a shocking directness and honesty in articulating difficult dimensions of intimate human experiences, but an authenticity that connects with us as we read them, a ring of truth that involves us in the family stories they are telling. What is surprising about the two articles is that each leaves us with the same impression of a toughness of character in the writer and a highlighting kindness in the writing.

Mary Kenny’s piece describes the difficulties of taking care of her husband who is suffering from a progressive condition. Almost defiantly she sets before us the hard reality of her life caring for him – ‘I carry out my carer’s duties because it’s my duty: I’m the obvious person to do it.’ Right after she asserts how this has changed her. ‘Caring changes your value system. Kindness has become much more important to me than almost anything else. Abstract talk about “rights” and “equality” strike me as containing a great deal of hot air, whereas “kindness” and “genuine respect” for the person really do mean the world.’

And that’s just the right phrase, isn’t it, kindness means the world - gives us the right meaning of our world. ‘Governments have legislated to support the disabled, but no amount of law will produce kindness. And it’s kindness that matters. It lifts my heart, nowadays, when I encounter kindness – and it does happen.’

Brendan O’Connor’s piece is more extraordinary in the way it captures, as it were, in slow motion, his heart’s u-turn following the birth of his daughter, the way it turned his life inside out and upside down, dismantling the perspective he had lived out of up to that moment, and, to his surprise, landing him in a wider world, a world with a richer meaning, a world whose outer extent and inner atmosphere are defined by kindness.

‘Thursday two weeks ago, we went into Holles Street in the morning, tentative but full of hope; and by two o'clock, our hearts were broken and our lives were turned upside down.’ The discovery that Mary had Down Syndrome was a before-and-after moment. Looking back, he sees ‘life before Mary’ as ‘a different life indeed, when we were innocent and foolish and thought we knew what worries and troubles were.’

Like Mary Kenny, kindness has taken on a new importance. ‘I have learnt many things in the last few weeks. One thing is that kind words can be so important and such a consolation. I never gave much of a damn for kind words before.’ The consultant’s words to them, “Mary is Mary”, struck just the right chord. ‘But with those three words he came through for us in the most unexpected way. For some reason it soothed us as we stood there dazed, and in a waking nightmare.’ Kind words from all sorts of doctors, nurses, friends and some unexpected sources would help get us through the next few days.

He gives the example of a text message from the woman in their older daughter’s creche – ‘she sent the most beautiful text about how they looked forward to welcoming Mary there. For Sarah, it meant a lot that these people, who have embraced Anna so much, were also going to embrace Mary.’

In a series of amazing sentences he describes the transformation he was undergoing.

After we had our first child, I thought I saw the world very clearly for a while -- I saw clearly who my friends were and who I valued. After Mary, I thought I could almost see the difference between good and evil. And some people you just didn't want near you and some people you knew were good.

So now I know that people are amazing. And I have more of an idea what love and friendship and family and kindness are. Some days, in my more elated moments, I would think that having spent 40 years looking for the meaning of life, sometimes in the most self-destructive ways, Mary had taught it to me in a few days.

I don't know that I can put it in words yet but I think the meaning of life may be about now, and love, and not giving a damn about things that don't really matter.

The texture of the new world he has entered is one of greater realness, compared with where he was before. ‘Real life has begun. I have woken up. It's not all easy but it is real.’

And the principal reality that has entered his life is the new person, his daughter, Mary. It is she who has brought him into this new world. ‘But do I wish she had never been born? Do I wish that we had just been happy with one? Do I wish we could have our old life -- which I have idealised out of all proportion -- back? Not any more. She's here now, a part of our little family. And we'd be lost without her. She has burrowed her way into our hearts so there is no imagining the world any other way. And even if she broke our hearts a bit when she came first, she's fixing them up a bit every day.’

The concluding paragraph of this amazing article is a ringing affirmation, of trust in the new world he has entered, in which the word ‘okay’ is repeated like the word’ yes’ in Molly Bloom’s soliloquy:

The funny thing is, you know very quickly when something happens whether everything is going to be okay. And even in my shock and agony in that operating theatre, I think I suddenly knew everything was going to be okay. And it is. There might be sadness ahead and there might be challenges ahead. But everything is going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay. Better than okay.

Every human being brings something new into the world with them, the very mystery of their unique being as a human person, thereby making the world a bigger, better place. Kindness is the larger, better part of humanity, and vulnerability invites kindness from the human heart. Brendan O’Connor’s article gives us a rare opportunity of observing this expanding of world and deepening of heart as it happens.

Read Brendan O’Connor’s article here