By Dr John Murray Can a Catholic vote in favour of abortion? Some Catholics might believe the answer is yes, based on a balance of considerations. In fact, no Catholic with a proper understanding of what their Church teaches should vote in favour of abortion. This would be true of any law that permits the direct...
What kind of abortion law does Together for Yes really want? Or to put it another way, what do some of its leading members want? While Together for Yes wants repeal of the 8th amendment and supports the Government’s proposed abortion law as “workable and reasonable”, its leaders want to go even further than this....
Two prominent obstetricians have written to The Irish Independent to refute claims that the 8th amendment is endangering women. Doctor Michael F O’Hare is the chairman of the Joint Institute of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists/HSE Working Group on Maternal Mortality and says that “there is no evidence whatever of a higher risk of maternal mortality or severe...
How permissive will the Government’s proposed abortion law be compared with other Western European countries? The short answer is, as permissive. In most West European countries, it is very rare for a woman to be refused an abortion, and it will be very rare here also. It is very dishonest, therefore, for the Government to...
Pro-choice campaigners like to say that the public must be ‘protected’ against misinformation from the pro-life side. But they themselves are guilty of spreading misinformation, for example the claim that countries such as Ireland, which have restrictive abortion regimes, have rates of abortion higher than countries with liberal regimes. Last week, the Guttmacher Institute, a...
“Justice is the advantage of the stronger” said Thrasymachus to Socrates, who disagreed. In our own culture, tolerance is increasingly merely an intermediary strategy used by the strong who still lacks power in certain areas. Once such power is gained, tolerance, fairness and pluralism quickly cease to be virtues. In the face of such trends,...
We are pleased to announce that we have launched the second round of our national billboard campaign. It has the same, simple and unmistakable message as last time, namely that the unborn child is ‘One of Us’. This is the truth that pro-choice campaigners want the public to ignore. They do not want to acknowledge the...
On his radio show last week, Sean O’Rourke hosted two doctors with opposing views on abortion. The debate went right back to medical first principles; what is medicine for? Dr. John Monaghan, a recently retired obstetrician who delivered more than 10,000 babies over his career, said that everyone in his position had to terminate pregnancies...
Can a Catholic with a well-informed conscience vote in favour of abortion? A question of this kind was put to Bishop Alan McGuckian, on Wednesday on RTE’s Morning Ireland. The short answer is no. The teaching of the Catholic Church on abortion is clear. Direct abortion is always wrong because, as the Catechism says, “human...
By Renate Lindeman Today my 12 year old daughter with Down syndrome delivered a speech on inclusion in her school. “Segregation makes a child feel lonely and not liked. It also teaches other students that it is okay to segregate children who are different. Students with special needs who are included are happier and...
