The big reveal this week in abortion politics is not that we would finally have a referendum to repeal the Eighth amendment, but rather that another provision would replace it. Yet, by the end of the week, we are no closer to knowing exactly what that text might be or what it is meant to...
Tax individualisation worked, declares a new paper from the Economic and Social Research Institute. Well, it worked if the aim of policy should be to increase the number of women in the workplace as distinct from giving parents a real choice between home and work. Tax individualisation was introduced to huge controversy in Budget 2000....
The issue of Down Syndrome (DS) and abortion is obviously going to loom large in the referendum debate with justifiable concerns raised that in a growing number of countries a large majority of babies are aborted once DS is diagnosed in the womb. The concern is that more Irish women will opt to do this...
Following the Dail debate last week on the issue of abortion, Maria Steen of The Iona Institute appeared on Prime Time where she debated Labour’s Senator Ivana Bacik. The item can be watch here. Maria was also on Today with Sean O’Rourke where she debated Senator Catherine Noone, Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment. It is here. Senator...
The movement toward the provision of genetic based ‘therapies’ with a clear eugenic intent has moved one step closer to becoming a reality in this State. As the Irish Independent reports, the proposal is being introduced under the guise of permitting the sex selection of an embryo in fertility clinics setting, prior to implantation, “where...
The issue of illegal abortion pills was raised a number of times in recent debates following the publication of the Report of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. How spread is this phenomenon? Even if some Irish politicians seem to have discovered only recently the availability of abortifacients, those pills have...
A debate is taking place in the Dail today and tomorrow over the issue of abortion. Here are some points TDs should keep in mind as the debate begins. The real issue is repeal of the 8th amendment. Any legislation that is enacted, however permissive, will only be the starting point. If the pro-life amendment...
In his Irish Times column this week, Fintan O’Toole expresses the opinion that there is an inconsistency between Church-run schools prioritising children of their own faith in the event of overcrowding, but not doing so when Church-run hospitals are overcrowded. Actually, there isn’t. The key is what is and isn’t necessary to uphold the ethos...
Is it acceptable for an EU Commissioner, in an interview with an Irish newspaper, to give public backing to abortion with a referendum looming and given that the issue does not fall within the jurisdiction of the EU? Well, if the shoe was on the other foot, what would the reaction have been? The Commissioner...
By David Mullins All kinds of restrictions are placed on the kinds of experiments that can be conducted on animals, but the proposed Assisted Human Reproduction Act 2017 does not do the same for human embryos. Surely this would strike any reasonable person as extremely unethical especially when the experiments kill the embryo? The...
