A group of “concerned citizens” stood in protest outside Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Co Louth on Monday morning after it was claimed on social media that the first abortion at the hospital was scheduled to take place. The seven-strong group held placards saying “Let him be born”, “Warning: Killing in progress”, “Let her be born”, and “Abortion is murder”.

One of the group, Charles Byrne, said, “it is a quiet protest. We are not going to leaflet people, we had the leaflets in the referendum; this is merely to show support for that child that is losing their life today.”

The posts on social media alerting people to the first abortion in the hospital were described as “despicable” by Minister for Health Simon Harris.

Particular ire was directed at Professor Ray Kinsella who had tweeted: “1st #abortion due to take place in Our Lady of Lourdes on Monday morning. Please pray hard that the #mother will recognise the #baby as a gift from God”. Various media personalities, politicians and campaigners lambasted him for his tweet.

Some hospitals providing abortions have imposed restrictions on who can avail of the procedure as they do not wish to become a national centre for abortions nor let other hospitals ‘off the hook’ for providing terminations.

Only nine of the State’s nineteen hospitals with maternity units have pledged to provide abortions, but some of those, such as the Rotunda in Dublin and the National Maternity Hospital, have been restricting the operation to patients who live within the hospital’s ‘catchment area’. The restriction has taken the HSE by surprise who have responded by warning hospitals to immediately stop. In a letter to individual hospitals, it says there is no legal basis for catchment areas and women seeking an abortion have the right to choose the location for their termination.

Sources told the Irish Times that one reason the hospitals imposed the restriction was to avoid becoming a de facto national centre for abortion referrals. It was also felt a failure to limit referrals would let other units, which are not yet ready to provide the service, “off the hook”.

54% of voters think those under the age of 18 should not be allowed to change their gender according to a new Behaviour & Attitudes poll for The Sunday Times. The poll found a mere 29% thought they should while the remaining respondents either didn’t know or had no opinion. The results of the poll run counter to the law as it stands which allows 16 and 17 year olds to change their gender after undergoing a medical evaluation if they have parental consent. The poll even more strongly opposes changes to the law proposed by the recent review of the 2015 Act governing gender changes which would allow under 16s to change their gender.

The number of people diagnosed with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Ireland rose by 8 per cent last year with 531 diagnoses in 2018, up from 492 the previous year. This comes despite an overall decline in rates of new cases across the European Union.

The latest data shows the rate of chlamydia in Ireland also increased in 2018, rising 7 per cent from 7,405 cases in 2017 to 7,942 cases last year. Rates of gonorrhoea also rose 7 per cent in 2018. The rate of syphilis rose by more than 25 per cent, from 411 diagnosed cases in 2017 to 516 cases last year.

A pro-life group staged a protest on Wednesday outside a GP surgery in Galway that offers abortions. The group held signs that said, “Real doctors don’t terminate their patients”, “There’s always a better option” and “Love them Both”. One of the participants wrote of the positive reaction they received from passers-by:
“The reaction from Galwegians was amazing. We had offers of food and coffee, beeping horns and support from many.  The message was ‘keep going’.”
Pro-abortion campaigners responded in anger with Ailbhe Smith calling the protests “deplorable” and demanded that the Minister for Health act immediately to create ‘exclusion zones’ to prevent such protests outside clinics that execute abortions.

Thirty-five priests were killed last year, along with one seminarian and four lay people in the course of their ecclesial ministry. Fides News Agency said that the 40 deaths are almost double the 23 number from 2017.

While Latin America had been the deadliest region for clergy for eight straight years, Africa took over the mantle in 2018, seeing 19 priests, one seminarian and one lay woman killed in the year.

“Many Missionaries have lost their lives during attempted hold-ups and robberies, ferociously committed, in impoverished, degraded social contexts, where violence is the rule of life, the authority of the State was lacking or weakened by corruption and compromises, or where religion is used for other ends,” Fides said.

“Everywhere priests, religious, and laymen share the same daily life as the common people, bringing them the evangelical witness of love and service for all, as a sign of hope and peace, trying to alleviate the suffering of the weak and raising their voices in defense of their trampled rights, denouncing evil and injustice,” it added.

“Even in danger of their own safety, at the request of civil authorities or their own superiors, the Missionaries remained at their posts, aware of the risks which they were running, in order to remain true to the duties they bore.”

GPs who provide abortions say they are aware of about 20 women from across the country who sought the procedure on the first working day of the service on Wednesday.

The MyOptions helpline set up by the Health Service Executive (HSE) as the main referral path for women seeking a termination was said to be “busy but not overwhelmed” on its first full regular day of operation.

Initial cases referred to doctors ranged from four weeks’ gestation upwards. Cases close to the 12-week limit under the legislation were facilitated with a same-day appointment at the nearest maternity unit offering abortion.

Doctors are required to notify the Minister for Health of the number of abortions performed within 28 days, so the exact level of demand will not be known with any accuracy for some weeks.

Fianna Fáil was “out of step” with the public on abortion and this damaged its chances of returning to power, one of its leading TDs has said. In an interview with the Irish Examiner, finance spokesman, Michael McGrath, said the abortion issue was an “incredibly difficult” one for Fianna Fáil, which is “scarred” by the divisions. The image of 31 of its parliamentary party posing for a photo opposing repeal of the Eighth amendment did damage the party, particularly in urban areas, he said.

The comments surprised observers who noted that the Fianna Fail party took no official position on the repeal referendum, but many of its leading figures led the charge to liberalise the country’s abortion laws. It was a Fianna Fail TD, Billy Kelleher, who first suggested that abortion should be delivered by GPs and be available without restriction for the first three months of a pregnancy.

Also, while 31 members of the parliamentary party publicly opposed repeal, that was little over half the parliamentary party of 57 TDs and senators. FF members had overwhelmingly opposed repeal at their Ard Fheis in 2017 when they passed a motion against it. Moreover, a majority of FF voters voted against Repeal according to an RTE exit poll.

In the last general election, in 2016, Fianna Fail received 24.3% of the vote, whereas 34% of the people voted against repeal of the Eighth amendment.

Pro-life campaigners sharply condemned the introduction of abortion in Ireland yesterday even as the Government hailed the new law as a “momentous” day for the country.

The day will be remembered in years to come as “the day Ireland abandoned authentic human rights, to sanction the direct and intentional killing of innocent human life”, said Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro-Life Campaign.

She said voters were lied to every step of the way during the referendum campaign by abortion supporters. “The definition of termination of pregnancy in the new legislation says nothing about healthcare or the intervention being necessary to treat a pregnant woman. It simply defines abortion as a procedure ‘intended to end the life’ of an unborn baby. The intent here could not be clearer.”

She said the new law is built on a lie that will not make Ireland a kinder, gentler, more compassionate place as some abortion advocates suggest.

“The fact that the Dáil refused to accept amendments like providing pain relief for unborn babies during late term abortions casts an even darker shadow over this barbaric law. It is a law that doesn’t show as much as a hint of mercy for unborn babies.”

Nonetheless, Dr Cullen vowed to fight on “to expose the lies that were told during the referendum campaign and we look forward to a brighter day at some point in the future when unborn babies in Ireland will once again be welcomed in life and protected in law”.

The new abortion law has “no moral force” and has “to be resisted”, the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh has said.

In his New Year message, Archbishop Eamon Martin said despite the repeal of the Eighth Amendment “it remains no less true that the life of a woman and her unborn baby are equally deserving of love, respect and protection”.

“Any law which suggests otherwise has no moral force,” he said.

“In good conscience it cannot be supported; it has to be resisted and we must continue to call and work diligently for its limitation, amendment and repeal.”

Dr Martin also said health staff should not be compelled to participate directly or indirectly with abortions. “No one should be forced, against their conscience, to participate in abortion or to refer patients to others for abortion,” he said.