Disabled unborn must be defended – pro-life group

The decision by Inclusion Ireland to join the Together for Yes campaign to remove the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution is a betrayal of those that it claims to represent, a disability rights group has said.

Inclusion Ireland, the National Association for People with an Intellectual Disability, announced on April 13 that it was joining the Yes campaign and also launched a new policy paper highlighting the harmful impact of the Eighth Amendment on people with disabilities.

In response, Michael O’Dowd of Disability Voices for Life said that “by supporting a proposal that will enable and facilitate the termination of the lives of unborn children with Down syndrome and other disabilities it is clear that Inclusion Ireland has lost its way.

“Any analysis of abortion shows that where it is introduced it is those with a disability in the womb that are targeted,” said Mr O’Dowd, whose son Conor has Down syndrome.

Mr O’Dowd added: “Inclusion Ireland has styled itself as the National Association for People with Intellectual Disability.

“They can no longer make that claim as they have shown that they are callous and uncaring in their consideration of the unborn child with a disability.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Denis Nulty said in a Pastoral letter on April 15 that we must advocate for all who are in need of protection in our society, otherwise, we will continue to be “walking with our eyes closed into an era of eugenics”.

Defence

“Once we deny the right to life of the unborn, we can no longer defend ourselves from what flows from an abortion culture,” the bishop said.

“For instance, we are in deep denial if we cannot recognise that an abortion culture fundamentally alters our attitude towards disability.”