David Quinn
Ireland is facing the most momentous vote in its history, writes David Quinn
These are the closing days of a referendum debate on the most momentous vote ever to face the Irish people; do we believe that unborn members of the human family have a right to life or not?
It is not at all clear if every voter is fully appraised of what is at stake because of the way the pro-choice side, aided and abetted by an overwhelmingly pro-choice media, have been able to pretend that this is mainly a vote about the hard cases like rape or ‘fatal foetal abnormality’. Let’s now look at what it is really about.
- It is about completely removing the constitutional right to life from the unborn
All of us have fundamental rights and these are protected by the Constitution. These rights cannot be taken away by politicians. Legally speaking, they can only be taken away from us in a referendum, by our own action. Your right to free speech, property, assembly, and of course, to life itself, is protected by the Constitution.
In 1983 we voted to enshrine the right to life of the unborn in our Constitution. We did this because of what was happening in other countries. In almost every other Western country, the unborn were defenceless when parliaments or courts began to liberalise their abortion laws. An abortion rate of one abortion for every four live births is now commonplace.
That has not happened here. Even if you take into account the women who travel to England, or who illegally import the abortion pill, our rate is far less than in other Western countries. It is about one abortion for every 13 births, not one for every four.
This means the pro-life amendment, the Eighth Amendment, has almost certainly saved thousands upon thousands of lives. There are people walking the streets today who are alive because of it. Ironically, some of them will be voting to repeal the Eighth Amendment not knowing it saved their lives.
If we vote for repeal, then the unborn will be left with no constitutional rights, unlike you or me. They will be as defenceless as they are in nearly every other country.
- The law proposed by the Government is very liberal
The Government pretends that the law it is proposing in place of the Eighth Amendment is restrictive. It is not. In practice, almost no abortions will be refused under it. In the first three months of pregnancy (or 12 weeks), an abortion can take place for any reason. All the woman has to do is go to a doctor who will give her the abortion pill after a 72-hour waiting period. (Remember: the abortion pill always results in a tiny dead body to be disposed of.)
In Britain and elsewhere, about 90% of abortions take place in the first three months. Therefore, this provision on its own would lead to a very liberal regime.
After three months and up to around six months, the woman can have an abortion if she is at ‘risk’ of ‘serious harm’ to her mental or physical health. In Britain, almost every abortion is carried out on the grounds of so-called ‘mental health’. No-one pretends the British law is restrictive.
After six months, under the proposed law, a woman could still obtain an abortion if doctors think there is a medical emergency, including to her mental health. Therefore, abortions could potentially take place right up till birth.
- This is not about the ‘hard cases’
The pro-choice side have been extremely successful at pretending this is all about the hard cases such as rape and fatal foetal abnormality. However, only about 2% of all abortions, if that, fall into this category. The rest are performed on the healthy babies of healthy women. What ‘illness’ is abortion ‘curing’ when both the mother and her unborn baby are healthy?
Of the 3,200 or so Irish women who have abortions in England each year, only dozens involve the hard cases. So, it is simply an outright falsehood for the pro-choice side, including the Government, to pretend this is only or mainly about the hard cases.
The Government also likes to pretend that we can only permit abortion in cases of rape if we allow abortion for any reason in the first 12 weeks pregnancy. This is completely false. In some other countries women who say they have been raped sign a statement to that effect in order to obtain an abortion. The case does not have to go to court. (Of course, those of us who favour keeping the Eighth in full argue that the unborn baby should not be punished for the crime of the man).
- Abortions will take place on disability grounds
The Government points out that where a disability to the unborn baby is non-fatal (Down syndrome, for example), abortion will not be permitted. This is not true in the first three months, and last week it finally emerged on RTE’s Liveline that there is a highly accurate test you can take in the first nine or 10 weeks of pregnancy that detects conditions like Down syndrome.
After that, it will almost certainly be possible to abort a child with a disability on the grounds of the mother’s ‘mental health’. This is what happens in Germany.
- Compassion never kills
The repeal side say a Yes vote is a vote for ‘compassion’, but it should be obvious that true compassion never kills.
- We should not legalise abortion because it is happening anyway
The pro-choice side says abortions are happening anyway so it would be more honest to allow it to happen legally here in Ireland. But laws are broken every day. This doesn’t mean we do away with a given law if there is a good reason behind it. The law against abortion is there to protect lives and even if the law is broken, we should not do away with whatever protection it has to offer. In addition, we cannot allow the fact that Britain’s abortion law is liberal to sway our law. The British law is terrible and inhumane. It is what should be reformed, not our law.
- No Catholic with a properly informed conscience can vote for repeal
Every Catholic is obliged to protect human life from conception until natural death. Voting for abortion is absolutely incompatible with the Catholic and Christian faith.