Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte was responding to comments made on the issue in an RTÉ interview by Cardinal Seán Brady.
When asked how the Church would react if the Government decided to legalise the carrying-out of abortions in this State, the Cardinal said it would launch a “media campaign” and would also be “lobbying public representatives”.
“I don’t have any objection to any of the churches stating its position and making it clear, but I think it would be a retrogressive step if we were to go back to the days of the Catholic Church dictating to elected public representatives how [they] should address an issue that a very large section of our society believes that governments in the past ought to already have done.”
Pro-Lifers in Ireland are deeply dismayed by the appointment of the former Chief Executive of the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) as Director General of Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE). The IFPA is an affiliate of International Planned Parenthood Federation IPPF one of the largest abortion providers in the world.
…The Minister in recent weeks has been acting contrary to the pro-life commitments made by his party at the last election. This became evident during the reading of the recently defeated private members bill tabled by Clare Daly when the Minister made it clear that he was in favour of legislation for abortion
…The political message being sent by Minister Reilly in appointing someone as Director General of the HSE who has spent most of his career campaigning for abortion on demand in Ireland is unmistakable.
Members of Youth Defence/Life Institute launching their nationwide anti-abortion campaign earlier this month. From left: Lucy Mc Donald, Niamh Lu Bhriain and Aine O Connell.
Dr David Robert Grimes writes:
“One would require a large sample group over a long period to see whether the women were more likely to have mental issues than those in a control group.That is the methodology used by a group of doctors in Denmark who charted the psychological health of 365,550 women, including 84,620 who had had abortions.
…Essentially these studies found there was no difference in mental health between those who opted for abortion and those who carried to term. Curiously, there was a markedly increased risk to mental health for women who gave a child up for adoption.
A corollary of the research was that while women did not suffer long-term mental health effects due to abortion, short-term guilt and sadness was far more likely if the women had a background where abortion was viewed negatively or their decisions were decried – the kind of attitude fostered by “pro-life” activists.
This leads to the dark irony that while groups of this ilk claim to support women, they increase the suffering of women who have had abortions – the very women they ostensibly claim to help.”
“On the shortest night of 2012 some people got together for some direct action against the appalling Youth Defence posters that have been plastered all over Dublin city center.” This video was sent to me anonymously to upload and share as citizen journalism. Fair play to the folks involved. Anarchists at the Workers Solidarity Movement have also been compiling photos of actions here.”
By telling women that there is “always” (emphasised) a better option, and that abortion “tears” a woman’s life apart, this advertisement encourages and condones “dangerous behaviour or unsafe practices” as it discourages women from having an abortion in ANY circumstances, even when their lives are medically threatened as a result of the pregnancy.
Calling on the government to decriminalise abortion following the release yesterday of figures (by the UK Department of Health) showing that 4,149 Irish women (some under the age of16) travelled to the UK for terminations in 2011.
Alison Spillane, of Action on X and the Irish Feminist Network, sez:
“Criminalising abortion doesn’t work and these latest figures prove that. While we welcome the slight fall in the numbers of women going to England and Wales for terminations, the fact remains that over 4,000 women made that difficult journey last year. This is wrong. We call on the government to start the process of providing safe legal abortions for women in Ireland by taking the first step: implementing the 20-year-old Supreme Court ruling in the X Case.”
Three women who had pregnancies in which their babies were diagnosed with abnormalities “incompatible with life”, with each “travelling” to have those pregnancies terminated, appeared on last night’s Late Late show.
Their story was featured on the front page of the Irish Times during the week.
The women, top from left: Ruth Bowie, Arlette Lyons and Jenny McDonald told Ryan Tubridy about a meeting they had with 25 TDs and senators at Leinster House on Wednesday to explain their predicament. It was in their own words a tearful and emotional encounter.
Jenny McDonald: “The TDs have been sitting on this for 20 years. That’s what makes me angry. This cannot happen to our children.”
Ryan Tubridy: “Did you say that to the TDs this week?”
McDonald: “Yes.”
Ruth Bowie: “We cried in front of them. We pleaded with them”
Tubridy: “What did you say to them?”
Bowie: “That you have to change this. This is a human rights issue. You cannot do this to us. You cannot turn your back on us. Force us out of our country, away from our families, and treat us like this. It’s barbaric and cruel.”
Tubridy: “Did you feel they were listening?”
Arlette Lyons: “Some of them did. Some of them were lovely and compassionate. We did have one particular TD who was extremely nasty to us.”
Tubridy: “Sorry say that again?”
Lyons: “We had one TD who wasn’t very pleasant.”
Tubridy: “Why not?”
Lyons: “He just wasn’t very pleasant to us but…that’s fine.”
Tubridy: “He just didn’t agree with what you were saying obviously. Again, as there are people now watching who despite everything won’t be happy with what they hear…”
This follows a comment on the Magic Mum forum on Thursday from a woman who said she had been at the meeting:
“I had one TD smirking at us yesterday while we sold our souls on the heartbreak of what we went through he actually had a smile on his face while we were bawling giving them our stories. I have never wanted to smack someone so hard in the face like I wanted to him yesterday. This nasty little man was Ronan Mullen. Please never ever ever vote for him.”
[Ronan Mullen is, in fact, a senator for the NUI Seanad constituency]
She added:
“He told me I should [have] carried my baby until the end because Ireland has the best palliative care in the world, he also said that he was sponsoring [a] child in Africa that had one of the conditions that the other girl Ruth’s baby had. Then he asked one of us at the end of our session, on the quiet, he said “What is your real agenda here?”. This was to a girl who lost her daughter Aoife at 22 weeks.”
Mullen told TheJournal.ie today that he would be “horrified at any suggestion that I was nasty to anyone at that meeting, especially the women who came to tell their stories”.
I would say there was no single politician in that room who did not feel sympathy for those women, regardless of their opinion on abortion. They were treated with respect and sensitivity at all times.”
