The Government’s abortion legislation represents “a radical change” in Irish law by allowing for the first time 
“the deliberate and intentional killing of an unborn child” the Catholic bishops of Ireland.
In a strongly worded statement, they also accused the Government of misleading voters with claims that they had to legalise abortion because of European Court of Human Rights ruling in 2010.
“The Government is under no obligation to legislate for the X case. People are being misled,” the statement said.
“We challenge repeated statements that this legislation is about saving lives and involves no change to the law or practice on abortion. Legalising the direct and intentional destruction of the life of an unborn baby can never be described as ‘life-saving’ or ‘pro-life’”.
The statement pointed out that the provision in the legislation allowing for abortion in case of a threat of sucide was “[c]ontrary to clear psychiatric evidence”.
The statement continued: “Furthermore, we challenge assurances that the proposed legislation will provide limited access to abortion.
“As published to date, the legislation will allow for a very wide margin of subjective professional assessment by which the deliberate destruction of an unborn baby can be legally justified. As we have learned from other countries, such legislation opens the door to ever wider availability of abortion.
“We remain convinced that enhanced medical guidelines, which do not envisage the direct and intentional killing of the unborn, could provide the necessary clarity as well as a morally, legally and medically acceptable way forward. While good health can normally be restored, life, once taken, can never, never be restored.”
The bishops also criticised the bill for failing to recognise the conscience rights of medical professionals.
“Freedom of conscience is a fundamental human right,” the statement said. “A State that truly cherishes freedom will respect the conscience of its citizens, including its public representatives, on such an important human value as the right to life.”
The statement continued: “It is ethically unacceptable to expect doctors, nurses and others who have conscientious objections to nominate others to take their place. Neither should any institution with a pro-life ethos be forced to provide abortion services.”
The bishops also urged voters “to exercise their right to make their views known respectfully to our public representatives and to leave them in no doubt about where they stand on this issue”.
And they urged politicians to “uphold the equal and inviolable right to life of all human beings, even if this means standing above other pressures and party loyalties”.
Speaking in Maynooth after the statement was released, the Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh and next Catholic primate of all Ireland, Eamon Martin, asked politicians how they can “legislate for something which will interfere with the inviolable right to life of every human person,” the Irish Times reports.
He continued: “We call on each public representative to search into their hearts and find there the good news about life which is at the centre of our gospel.”
He said: “In many ways what we have been served up the last month or two is a mantra that ‘this is restrictive, this is about saving lives and we’re not going to talk about it anymore’.”
He described as “spin” much commentary surrounding the Government’s proposed abortion legislation which he said claims it is “about saving lives, that it is restrictive and that it represents no change”.
Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy said: “Abortion is never a solution. There are other ways and we feel that this short statement . . . we’d like to promote it, that people would read it.”
Asked if other churches in Ireland and the non-Christian religions that believe abortion should be allowed in certain instances were wrong, he responded: “It is not even a church issue. It is an issue for every human being. Abortion is wrong if there was no other church, no Catholic Church, no other Christian churches.”
In reponse, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the bishops were “entitled to their opinion” but claimed that the legislation was about saving lives.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet is meeting today to discuss the abortion bill. The Government scheduled the meeting for this morning amid intensive efforts last night to agree a text acceptable to both Fine Gael and Labour.
The 8am meeting was scheduled after serious drafting difficulties left Ministers without a definitive text to discuss at yesterday’s meeting.
Spokesmen for Fine Gael and Labour insisted the two Coalition parties had reached “political agreement” on the legislation when Minister for Health Dr James Reilly met Minister of State for Primary Care Alex White on Monday.
After 10pm last night however, the draft legislation was still in preparation in the office of the Attorney General. “There are still outstanding issues and, until everybody is happy with the draft, we won’t have an outcome,” said a source involved in the discussions.
While a second source said the plan for a meeting this morning remained on track, another said it was not possible to predict whether the legislation would be ready on time.
The discussions centre around the scope of a new framework to review the operation of the law, something not included in the heads of the Bill agreed several weeks ago.
The legislation is expected to be broadened to include a “reporting mechanism” so the Oireachtas can monitor its operation. One option is for the publication of annual figures setting out the procedures carried out under the Act.