The Minister of State for Europe, Lucinda
Creighton, has called for a “reasoned and rational” debate on abortion, and has
slammed comparisons between our Constitution and the rule of the Taliban in
Afghanistan.
She was responding to remarks made on RTE
Radio by Olivia O\’Leary on Tuesday in which she said that Ireland needed to
“kick the Taliban out of our constitution”.
Ms O\’Leary claimed
that Ireland was “is no country for young women”.
In a blog (http://www.lucindacreighton.ie/2013/04/25/25-april-2013/) on
her website, Ms Creighton said that the comparison with
the Taliban was “grossly misleading”.
She wrote: “Olivia O’Leary should, and I’m
fairly sure does, know better. Could she really believe that the Shia women of
Mazar-e-Sharif, whose husbands were executed and had their throats slit before
their eyes and those of their children, would agree that Ireland is a terrible,
oppressive place to live?
“Many of those same women saw their children
stuffed into containers and sent to unknown destinations, left to suffocate in
a slow and painful death. Would those women, I wonder, condemn the Irish legal
system which strives to protect the lives of all children?”
She added: “Does Olivia also wish to compare
Ireland and our treatment of women with the Taliban leaders who routinely
abduct women and sell them into sex slavery like animals?
“I would kindly ask Olivia O’Leary and the
many other people who have been using this Taliban analogy in recent days, to
take the trouble to inform themselves.”
Referring to the specific issue of abortion,
she said that she respected the views of those who disagreed with her on the
issue.
But she said she could not respect “the sort
of hysteria and incitement which poured forth from Ms. O’Leary on RTE radio the
other day”.
“You may want abortion to be brought in
Olivia, but please do not suggest that ours is a country comparable with one
ruled by an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist movement. Get a grip,” Ms
Creighton said.
She added that she had concerns about
Government proposals to legislate for suicide as a ground for abortion.
She said: “Legislating for suicidality
worries me, because as 113 consultant psychiatrists said clearly today, such a
step has “no basis in medical evidence”.
“Surely we should legislate on the basis of
medical facts, and be guided by the experts who know their patients and their
conditions better than anyone else.”
She said that she considered the abortion
debate “to be a human rights issue”.
Ms Creighton said: “It is about the human
rights of women and of their unborn babies. The fact that a baby is not born
does not mean that it is not a life and therefore worth defending.
“There is a great irony in the fact that we
throw all the resources in the world (and rightly so) at saving the life of a
premature baby born at 23 or 24 weeks, and yet some may consider the abortion
of that baby, at the same stage to be right and just. I don’t.”
“For me this is a very important core
question – whether we choose to protect the fundamental rights of all people,
men and women, young and old, babies and adults. Whether we do or not very much
informs how we view abortion.”
Meanwhile, reports suggest that senior Fine
Gael figures are concerned that up to six members of the Fine Gael
parliamentary party may vote against proposed abortion legislation.
According to a report in the Irish
Independent, it is thought that TDs John O\’Mahony, Peter Mathews and Terence
Flanagan and senators Paul Bradford and Fidelma Healy-Eames may lose the whip
over the issue.
The report also suggested that Ms Creighton
along with TDs Michelle Mulherin and James Bannon, and Senator Catherine Noone
might vote against the Government.
Also regarded as uncomfortable are TDs John
Deasy, Billy Timmins and Michael Creed, along with Senators Michael Mullins and
Paul Coghlan.
