Michael KellyGardaí have sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions on the practices of a controversial pro-choice group, including allegedly giving advice to women on how to illegally import abortion pills.
The Pro-Life Campaign (PLC) has described as “very disturbing” the revelations about the State-funded Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA).
According to PLC Deputy Chairperson Cora Sherlock “the type of counselling advice given by the IFPA to women was life-endangering”.
She claimed that “this scandal has been brushed under the carpet for two years by the Department of Health”.
Ms Sherlock accused the IFPA of showing “total disregard for women’s health by giving them advice on how to illegally import abortion pills, to self-administer without medical supervision.
“There is no excusing this conduct,” she said.
Meanwhile, campaigners have held vigils to highlight the case of the mother and her baby who was delivered early as a result of the Government’s abortion legislation. According to the Life Institute, some 3,000 people attended a ‘vigil of hope’ on Dublin’s O’Connell Street on Saturday.
Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute told those present that “if Enda Kenny has a conscience, I hope he is ashamed of what his law has deliberately inflicted on that tiny little baby boy, gasping to take a breath.
“His abortion law has fallen at the very first hurdle, and Mr Kenny now needs to repeal this cruel and unworkable abortion act,” she said.
Several hundred people attended a similar vigil organised by the PLC outside the Dáil on Friday evening.
Caroline Simons, Legal Consultant to the PLC told the gathering that the push for more abortion has been relentless in the past week but she said: “I sense there is a strong undercurrent of public revulsion at the way pro-choice groups sought to deny the humanity of the baby that is currently battling to survive and the fact that the Government’s abortion legislation could have been used to end the life of this defenceless baby at any stage in pregnancy right up to birth.”
A special fund for the baby at the centre of the case was also launched at the vigil. The money raised for the ‘Little One Fund’ will be placed in a trust and be used to ensure that the baby will receive the best medical care available.