Courtney McGrailIt’s wrong of campaigners to use same-sex marriage as a springboard for abortion, writes Niall Guinan
Niall Guinan
Catholics who voted ‘yes’ in the referendum on same-sex marriage did not do so to destroy the foundations of society. Nor did they vote ‘yes’ to allow the State to take children from their heterosexual parents. We voted ‘yes’ because we felt that love and commitment are important and that the State should support such love and commitment wherever it is found.
We voted ‘yes’ because marriage involves the State publicly supporting a couple’s choice to be together and we believe it is fundamentally inequitable for the State to exclude certain couples from that support.
We voted ‘yes’ because this debate was about gay people and how we are valued by society. The mammies and grannies of Ireland felt that it was simply unfair that their gay children should be excluded from the right to have their love recognised by the State.
The people of Ireland voted ‘yes’ because they believed that each human person is a child of God and therefore, should not be subject to discrimination.
However, we barely had time to recover from the post-referendum celebrations before certain activists and politicians began clamouring for a considerably more fundamental and radical change to be made to the constitution: the removal of all constitutional protection for the unborn child.
Equality provision
The eighth amendment is an equality provision, protecting the most vulnerable human beings among us. To remove this precious protection for the unborn child from our constitution would be an extraordinary attack on human dignity.
The same is true of the similar proposition (which unfortunately does not require constitutional change) to introduce euthanasia to this country. The grotesque situation that now exists in the Netherlands and Belgium where euthanasia is now being used as a ‘treatment’ for mental illnesses as well as physical pain and suffering shows us that there is a lot more involved here than simply humanely putting an end to excruciating pain.
In 2013, according to anti-euthanasia campaign group Hope Ireland, 16% of all deaths in the Netherlands occurred as a result of euthanasia. This is a Trojan Horse that we should not be welcoming into our country as an ‘advance in human rights’. It is no such thing.
In relation to abortion, it is frequently pointed out that, at present, Ireland is essentially exporting our problem to Britain. This is true.
We are told by the UK Department of Health that at least 3,735 women crossed the Irish Sea to procure an abortion during 2014. It is unclear how many women used abortifacient drugs at home here in Ireland to end their pregnancies.
The solution to this problem is to increase supports for pregnant women here in Ireland. It is not, however, to import Britain’s problem here.
Since the 1967 Abortion Act became law in England, Wales and Scotland, there have been over eight million abortions. Lord David Steel, who introduced that legislation as an MP, has admitted that he severely underestimated what his bill was going to lead to.
Last year, it was reported that the remains of aborted unborn children were being incinerated and in some cases used to heat hospitals. In one year alone, 66 babies, the victims of abortions close to the legal limit of 24 weeks were born alive and left aside in UK hospitals to die in agony.
We have also seen recently the tragic case of an Irishwoman who bled to death in Britain in a taxi after an abortion. Abortion is being used in the UK as a subtle but horrifying means of eugenics with over 90% of babies with Down syndrome being aborted.
In addition, attempts to in any way curb what is going on are dismissed in Westminster with the brave MPs willing to admit that the pro-abortion Emperor has no clothes being derided and shouted down by their colleagues.
A proposal by Nadine Dorries to reduce the abortion limit to 20 weeks taking account of recent developments in medical care for premature babies was defeated.
More recently, a proposal by Fiona Bruce to clarify the law in relation to the specific targeting of female foetuses was voted down in the House of Commons. This occurred despite clear evidence that this sort of gendercide is a serious and growing problem in Britain.
This defeat prompted The Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley to take to twitter to describe the abortion industry as: “this century’s Moloch; nothing is too precious to sacrifice to it; no number is sufficient to satisfy it.”
This is not what Irish people who voted ‘yes’ on May 22 voted for. It is cynical and wrong for pro-abortion campaigners to try and co-opt supporters of same-sex marriage in their campaign to remove legal protection from unborn children. I, and many other gay people and those who voted ‘yes’ to same-sex marriage, are passionately about the right to life of unborn children.
Not in my name.