Colm Fitzpatrick
The Love Both campaign launch Voters who support abortion in so-called limited circumstances must know that what they hope for with repealing the Eighth Amendment and what they’d get are two entirely different things, a pro-life lawyer has said.
Speaking at the Love Both campaign launch today in Dublin, Caroline Simons said: “If the Eighth Amendment is repealed, Ireland will go from being a country that protects unborn human life to one of the most extreme abortion regimes in the world.”
She added that the proposed legislation also allows for abortion on vague and undefined ‘health grounds’, up to viability and even up to birth where the baby has a potentially life-limiting condition and in other circumstances as well.
“It didn’t have to be this way. The Government could have chosen to amend the Eighth Amendment for so-called hard cases, while leaving some form of protection for unborn babies in the Constitution.
“But instead they opted for a proposal that takes away all meaningful protection from unborn babies”, Mrs Simons said.
The launch took place in the Alex Hotel on Fenian Street this morning and was attended by a large crowd, including politicians such as TD’s Mattie McGrath and Peter Fitzpatrick.
Following Mrs Simons, LoveBoth spokesperson Cora Sherlock encouraged voters to “boldly speak up” for the protection of the constitutional provision.
“More and more people are starting to realise what’s at stake in this referendum. That’s certainly been my experience from talking to people over the past month or so,” she said.
“Ireland would be a very different place without the Eighth Amendment, and it would not be for the better.”
Love Both spokespersons Sinead Slattery and Áine Kierans also pointed out that we should be focused on issues that unite our society rather than divide it, adding that repealing the Eighth Amendment would be “a dreadful drift backwards rather than a step forward”.