Chai Brady
7.9.2017
8TH AMENDMENT SHOULD BE CELEBRATED NOT UNDERMINED.
Today (7.9.17) marks the 34th anniversary of the passage of the 8th Amendment. Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Cora Sherlock said it's an opportunity to "celebrate the lives saved by the Amendment" Pic shows volunteers from the Pro LIife Campaign outside Leinster House on Thursday to mark the 34th anniversary of the passage of the 8th Amendment. Pic John Mc Elroy. NO REPRO FEE. Further Info Pro Life Campaign 087-6851596 The Pro-Life Campaign (PLC) has criticised Leo Varadkar’s comments in which he said the unborn should not have the same rights as the mother.
However the PLC welcomed that he does not agree the unborn should have no rights whatsoever.
In an article published in the New York Times the Taoiseach is quoted as saying: “And there are people who take the view that human rights only begin after you’re born and that a child in the womb with a beating heart, the ability to hear, the ability to feel pain, should have no rights whatsoever. I don’t agree with that.”
Cora Sherlock, spokesperson for the PLC, said his comments were “encouraging” as he acknowledged the “humanity of the baby in the womb”.
However Ms Sherlock said it is “difficult to understand” how the Taoiseach believes the lives of the mother and unborn are not equal.
“The Eighth Amendment guarantees that equality while at the same time ensuring that women receive whatever treatment they need while pregnant,” she said. “…We have not only avoided the human rights abuses caused by abortion in other countries, but we have remained as world leaders in the area of maternal health,” she added, saying the Citizens’ Assembly recommendations show there’s no such thing as ‘restrictive abortion’.
“Once particular categories of human beings are singled out as unworthy of legal protection in the womb at any stage, we undermine respect for all human life, born and unborn.” The Pro-Life Campaign celebrated the 34th anniversary of the passage of the Eighth Amendment last Thursday.