The proposal to have a GP-led system providing abortion on request up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy is “the exact opposite” of what healthcare professionals are trained to do, a new group called ‘Medical Alliance for the Eighth’ has said.
“Abortion is life-ending. It is never life-saving. This proposal is about opening the door to wide-ranging abortion and nothing more,” Dr Siobhán Crowley, a GP, told a press conference in Dublin yesterday on behalf of the organisation.
“As doctors and as healthcare professionals we believe it is wholly unacceptable and unsafe to hastily push through plans without consideration of the implications”.
She added that there is “widespread opposition and concern” within the medical profession over what the Government is proposing.
Dr Crowley said the repeal of the Eighth Amendment would “lead to abortion on demand in Ireland and to an abortion regime that is more extreme than in Britain, where one in five pregnancies end in abortion.”
Sinn Féin TD Carol Nolan has been expelled from the party for three months for opposing the party’s position on the Eighth Amendment.
Ms Nolan, a TD for Offaly-North Tipperary, voted against the bill to hold a referendum to repeal the right to life of unborn children in the Dáil on Wednesday.
She told the assembled members the recent ruling of the Supreme Court was a “wake-up call” to all in the State. “We are faced with a clear decision in the forthcoming referendum. We can chose to retain the eighth amendment, which is the only legal protection for unborn babies under which doctors in Irish hospitals protect the lives of both patients – the mother and the baby – or we can repeal the eighth amendment and face the prospect of abortion being normalised in this State,” she said.
“I believe that the deletion of 40.3.3° from the Constitution, which would remove the right to life of the unborn, would be a very regressive step, and one which we as a society will live to regret. Every child has the basic, fundamental right to life, and that right to life is non-negotiable. We should cherish and uphold this fundamental right, and we should not repeat or replicate the mistakes of England or other countries where abortion has been normalised and liberalised.”
A Court in Italy has ruled for the first time that two women should be named as the parents of a child on its birth certificate, with both specifically recognised as mothers, even though only one is naturally the mother of the child. No father is to be mentioned on the birth cert. The Court’s reasoning also raised eyebrows for claiming that not recognising both women as mothers on the certificate would “violate the fundamental rights of the child”. The lower court in Pisa that issued the ruling will now await confirmation from the Italian Constitutional Court before implementing its decree, as the judgement is contrary to legislation in this matter that expressly prohibited what the judge ruled is required by justice.
The Social Democratic Party in Sweden has proposed banning all religious schools (known as “confessional schools”) in the country. The party, who are in a coalition government with the Green Party, have expressed concern that confessional schools contribute to the segregation of students, by religion and gender, and that they don’t teach children democratic values. “In our schools, teachers and principals should make the decisions, not priests or imams,” Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education and Training Anna Ekstrom said at a press conference. The Social Democrats said last week that the proposed policy would be a priority if they were re-elected in a general election due this coming September.
Catholic educators have reacted with shock and dismay. They are concerned that the proposal would constitute an even more wide-ranging infringement on religious freedom in what is already a heavily-restricted religious education in the country. Religious schools cannot charge tuition, and must depend on government funding.
“There is a very negative public debate with a lot of pre-judgements against us and religion in general. We are very worried of course as the proposal is an aggressive assault against our Catholic community,” Paddy Maguire, principal of Notre Dame Catholic School in Gothenburg (located about 300 miles southwest of Stockholm), and Daniel Szirányi, a board member of the same school, said in a joint statement.
Religious education in the country is already under strict restrictions. Current law in Sweden does not allow for catechesis or prayer to take place during regular school hours – it must take place either before or after school, on a purely voluntary basis.
The first stage of the bill to hold an abortion referendum passed the Dail with 120 voting in favour and 32 against. The bill will now proceed to the committee stage to be scrutinised in greater detail. The vast majority of Fianna Fail TDs voted against the legislation while just two Fine Gael TDs opposed the measure – Peter Fitzpatrick from Louth and Dun Laoghaire TD Sean Barrett. Sinn Féin TD Carol Nolan opposed the legislation and will now face disciplinary action from her party. Meath TD Peadar Toibin who also opposes repeal was not present for the vote as he was unable to attend.
Earlier on Wednesday Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government will respect the result of the May abortion referendum and would not immediately call for a rerun of the vote if it were lost. “If the referendum is defeated, the Government will respect that decision and will not bring forward a proposal for a new referendum during the period of this Government.”
Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty has said Repeal campaigners will not accept a No vote in the forthcoming abortion referendum.
“The people who have brought us, and who have been very vocal on this issue for a number of years, they are certainly not going to accept a No,” Ms Doherty told The Irish Times in Paris, where she was attending St Patrick’s Day events.
She refused to say whether the Government would call a second poll in the event of a rejection, but she did say she envisaged the pro-choice movement would strongly push for one.
She also referred to her previous pro-life views, based on her Catholic faith, as being “born out of ignorance”.
“It was only when I informed myself that I realised just how ignorant I actually was,” she said.
Pro-life groups reacted with shock and dismay to her remarks, with Savethe8th calling them “repugnant and disgraceful” and the Pro-Life Campaign describing them as showing contempt towards voters.
Pubs who acted in concert to remain closed on Good Friday have been warned by the Competition authority that they may be in breach of laws against the operation of cartels.
A spokeswoman for the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) said: “In recent weeks we have become aware of reports concerning a small number of publicans deciding not to open on Good Friday, March 30. The opening hours of a pub are a matter for each publican to decide. Publicans should decide individually and not collectively, the terms and conditions under which they are willing to provide goods or services to customers. The CCPC reminds all publicans that under competition law, they are obliged to make commercial decisions, including their opening hours for business, independently.”
The CCPC has contacted the representative bodies for pubs, the Licensed Vintners Association and the Vintners Federation of Ireland to remind their members that, as businesses, they have obligations under competition law.
The Vintners Association was a big proponent of the recent change in the law to allow pubs open and sell alcohol on Good Friday, if they so wished.
