Deputy Mattie McGrath's Private Member's Bill Welcomed by PLC

The Pro Life Campaign has expressed its support for the latest effort by Independent TD Mattie McGrath, obliging medical professionals to desist from using the term ‘incompatible with life’ when referring to unborn babies with potentially life-limiting conditions.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday during the introduction of his Private Members’ Bill on the issue (Disability Amendment Bill 2015), Mr McGrath said: “Like many phrases that may once have been prevalent in our society, for example terms like illegitimate or retard, the phrase 'incompatible with life' must be eliminated from our public discourse”.

Commenting on Deputy McGrath’s Bill, Cora Sherlock, Deputy Chairperson of the Pro Life Campaign said: “There is a responsibility on everyone who contributes to the abortion debate to behave in a way that doesn’t cause offence or hurt to families or individuals who may be feeling particularly vulnerable. In recent debates, some politicians have used obscene and highly offensive language to describe unborn babies with life-limiting conditions. There is nothing anyone can do about that other than appeal to these politicians to be more mindful of the sensitivities involved and how much hurt and anguish their ill-considered comments cause families of babies with terminal illnesses.”

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Fundamental Flaws in Legislation Demonstrated in Leinster Hospital Abortion Case

The Pro Life Campaign has said today that the case of an abortion carried out in a Leinster hospital which has reportedly raised staff concerns about the certification process by the health professionals involved is not surprising. 

Commenting on the case, in which an abortion was carried out under the terms of the 2013 legislation last October, Cora Sherlock, the Deputy Chairperson of the Pro Life Campaign said:

“The 2013 law permits abortion up until birth on a threat of suicide without any medical evidence to back it up.  The law simply requires two psychiatrists to sign off to pave the way for an unborn child’s life to be ended.”

“When the abortion law was being debated the Pro Life Campaign and others predicted that it was dangerously open to abuse and the case reported today appears to substantiate those concerns.”

Responding to the fact that the HSE does not intend to investigate if there has been any breach of procedure in this particular case she said:

“While we cannot comment on individual cases, it goes without saying that every situation where an unborn child’s life is taken, whether or not within the confines of the unjust abortion law of 2013, should be thoroughly investigated.”

“The idea of the HSE deciding not to investigate when legitimate concerns have been raised by its own staff about the ceritification procedure is disturbing and simply not acceptable. An independent investigation into this tragedy must take place without delay”, Cora Sherlock concluded.

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Pro Life Campaign says Fine Gael need to face up to commitments rather than resorting to spin

The Pro Life Campaign has described as “disgraceful” the fact that Minister for Health James Reilly has begun replying to members of the public that Ireland "must" bring in abortion along the lines of the controversial 'X Case' decision and says this “turns the entire Expert Group on abortion process into a farce.”

In correspondence to fellow TDs and members of the public, Minister Reilly makes it clear that following on from the decision in A, B and C v. Ireland by the European Court of Human Rights, Ireland “must put in place a legislative or regulatory regime providing effective and accessible procedures whereby pregnant women can establish whether or not they are entitled to a lawful abortion in accordance with Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the X case.”

Minister Reilly hinted at such an approach during the recent Clare Daly Bill on Abortion in the Dáil but just recently he has become starkly explicit about his plans.

Following the publication of this fact in the Irish Catholic Newspaper last week, the Fine Gael press office, in an e-mail to its TDs and Senators, described the newspaper report on the issue as “fundamentally flawed and substantially incorrect”.   However, the Pro Life Campaign this week insisted there “was nothing flawed or incorrect in the report.  Minister Reilly’s statement that abortion “must” be introduced in Ireland was as clear as day.”

Dr Ruth Cullen said that Dr Reilly’s comments remain “an extremely worrying development that throws into doubt whether Fine Gael will stand over, or betray, its solemn written commitment to the electorate not to bring in abortion.

“Senior members of Fine Gael need to take responsibility for a process that is fast derailing into a public farce with a Fine Gael Minister now publicly touting as official policy that Ireland “must” bring in abortion.

“Fine Gael needs to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation and not try and spin its way out of controversy. As things stand, Minister Reilly has primed the expert group to report back with a narrow list of options, all leading to abortion.”

“This is an outrage given Ireland’s outstanding record in caring for mothers and babies in pregnancy without recourse to abortion,” Dr Cullen said.

It is increasingly clear that the Expert Group process is not about protecting women’s lives but about bringing in abortion. If this is proven correct, the Pro Life Campaign will mount an even more vigorous campaign to ensure that abortion is not brought in under any guise including the one describing it as a ‘medical treatment.’

And it will ensure that every Fine Gael voter the length and breadth of the country is fully informed of any shift in party policy away from its pre-election pro-life commitments.

Public wants Fine Gael to honour its pro-life commitments Pro Life Campaign calls on Minister for Health to clarify Fine Gael’s stance on abortion following Dáil speech

The Pro Life Campaign today released the latest Millward Brown Lansdowne polling research on life issues which shows strong public backing for the pro-life commitments made by Fine Gael prior to the general election in 2011. The research also reveals significant public support for current medical practice in Ireland where there is a duty of care towards the baby when intervening in pregnancy to save the mother’s life.

The research was carried out on a quota controlled sample of 979 people aged 18+ between 2nd – 15th May 2012.

The first question reads:

Just prior to polling day in the 2011 General Election, Fine Gael said it was opposed to the legalisation of abortion and experimentation on human embryos. It said that Fine Gael’s representatives would bring to the proposed all-party committee a clear commitment that women in pregnancy will receive whatever treatments are necessary to safeguard their lives, and the duty of care to preserve the life of the baby will also be upheld.  Would you agree or disagree with this commitment?

Overall, of those who expressed an opinion, 80% agreed with the commitment and 20% disagreed.  In Connacht/Ulster which includes the Taoiseach’s constituency of Mayo, 87% agreed and only 13% disagreed.

The second question was worded as follows:

Current medical practice in Ireland does not allow the deliberate killing of the unborn baby.  In a crisis pregnancy situation, the doctor has a duty of care towards the baby when intervening to save the mother’s life.  Do you consider that this ethical practice should be protected by law?

78% of those who expressed an opinion said it should and 22% disagreed.  There was majority support in all ages, social classes and regions.

Commenting on the poll findings, Dr Berry Kiely of the Pro Life Campaign said: “When the ethical distinction between induced abortion and necessary medical interventions in pregnancy is clarified in polling questions, the true strength of public opposition to abortion is revealed. The latest poll findings bear this out and are immensely reassuring from a pro-life perspective.”

Referring to the speech by Minister for Health, James Reilly in the Dáil during the recent Private Members’ Bill on abortion, Dr Kiely said,  “The Minister for Health’s speech alarmed pro-life supporters and he has a responsibility to clarify his position and that of Fine Gael”.

In his speech Minister Reilly said that the previous six governments had failed to legislate for the X Case decision but that the present Government “will not be the seventh.”

In response to this, Dr Kiely said, “It is clear from the Minister’s remarks that he does not expect the “Expert Group” on abortion to list as one of its options ways of complying with the European Court of Human Rights decision in A, B and C v. Ireland, that afford legal protection to both mother and baby in pregnancy. This completely undermines Fine Gael’s solemn pre-election commitment opposing abortion legislation and pledging that “women in pregnancy will receive whatever treatments are necessary to safeguard their lives and the duty of care to preserve the life of the baby will also be upheld.

“Legislation based on the X Case would amount to abortion on demand as the judges heard no medical evidence and set no time limits for when an abortion could take place. In addition the recent European court decision in A, B and C v. Ireland does not oblige us to introduce an abortion regime.

“Instead of repeating pro-abortion claims, the Minister for Health needs to acknowledge that Ireland, without abortion, is the safest country in the world for pregnant women as recognised by the UN and World Health Organisation. The Minister also needs to clarify Fine Gael’s stance on abortion in light of his recent speech in the Dáil”, Dr Kiely concluded.

PLC welcomes fall in abortion rates for tenth consecutive year. While abortion rates fall, rate of women regretting abortions rise

The Pro Life Campaign has welcomed the latest Irish abortion figures released on the 29th of May 2012, by the British Department of Health,* which show that the number of Irish women travelling to Britain for abortions has decreased for the tenth consecutive year.


In 2011, 4,149 Irish women travelled to Britain for abortions, down from 4,402 in 2010 and 4,422 in 2009.  The 2011 figures show a marked decrease over previous years.  2011 is the tenth consecutive year that Irish abortions have declined and represents a 38% decline since the high of 6,673 Irish abortions in 2001.


The release of these figures follows the recent report ** from the HSE/Crisis Pregnancy Programme showing an increase in the number of women expressing abortion regret.  In that study, 44 per cent of women expressed varying degrees of regret about their abortions up from 33 per cent in a similar HSE study in 2003.


In a statement welcoming the continuing reduction in the number of Irish women travelling to Britain for abortion, Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign said:


“While it is too early to draw firm conclusions, the fact that the abortion figures are decreasing while the number of women expressing regret after abortion is increasing, shows the need for a much closer examination of women’s experiences of abortion, including abortion regret."


She said: “There has been a refusal on the part of those campaigning for abortion in Ireland to take on board the research indicating the negative consequences of abortion for women. This does a tremendous disservice to women. The claims by some groups that the reduced figures can be explained by the fact that women are travelling to other countries is not backed by the evidence."

 *Summary Abortion Statistics, England and Wales: 2011 (29/05/12)  ** Irish Contraception and Crisis Pregnancy Study 2010 (ICCP 2010), published in May 2012 (HSE/CPP)

Study showing regret after abortion must be considered by the Minister For Health says Pro Life Campaign

A comprehensive study showing that 44 per cent of women expressed varying degrees of regret about their abortions “must be urgently considered by the Minister for Health”, the Pro Life Campaign (PLC) has said.

They were responding to the Irish Contraception and Crisis Pregnancy Study 2010 (ICCP 2010), produced by the HSE's Crisis Pregnancy Programme (CPP).

The study showed that 31pc of women who had abortion experienced "some regrets", with 13pc reporting that they experienced “a lot of regrets”. This represents an increase from 2003, when 22pc reported experiencing some regret, with 11pc saying they had a lot of regrets.

Spokesperson for the PLC, Dr Ruth Cullen, said the figures showed that the abortion debate “needed to make room for the voices of the increasing number of women who regret their abortion”.

She said: "While there has been considerable media focus on the stories of women who wished to see abortion legal in Ireland, the same cannot be said for the stories of women who regret their abortions. This has to change.

She said: “Even organisations like the National Women's Council of Ireland, which are supposed to represent all women, dismiss organisations that seek to express the pain of women hurt by abortion.

Dr Cullen also said that Minister James Reilly needs to take into account the experiences of women who regretted their abortion and ensure that counselling services also acknowledge this reality.

She expressed surprise that the CPP had not conducted research into the mental health impact of abortion, given the fact that there were now a number of studies showing that abortion presented a considerable risk to the mental health of women.

Dr. Cullen said: “A number of peer reviewed studies have now shown that women who have abortions are up to 30pc more likely to experience subsequent mental health problems. This is even after those studies controlled for women with pre-existing mental health conditions.

“One might have expected a comprehensive study on crisis pregnancy to have examined this area.”

Dr Cullen also noted that the study's findings on attitudes to abortion were compromised by the question asked.

According to the survey, 45 per cent of adults believed abortion should be permissible in all circumstances, down from over 50 per cent in a similar study in 2003. And 44 per cent said it should be available under certain circumstances, up from 39 per cent in 2003.

However, Dr Cullen said, the survey's question relating to abortion when there is a risk to the woman's life “failed to make the distinction between medical interventions in pregnancy to save the mother's life and induced abortion, the sole aim of which is to end the life of the baby.

She said that this shortcoming in the research made the findings on attitudes to abortion “effectively irrelevant”.

Pro Life Campaign says Labour Party abortion stance 'ignores hurt abortion causes women'

A motion passed at  Labour Party's conference (15th April 2012)  in favour of abortion legislation has been described by the Pro Life Campaign (PLC) as “ignoring the hurt that abortion causes women”.

In a statement, PLC spokesperson, Dr Ruth Cullen said that those who spoke in favour of the motion had “tried to imply that legislation would safeguard women’s lives”.

“In fact, the motion was about seeking abortion on demand,” Dr Cullen said.

She added: “Those who supported the motion should know that Ireland, without abortion, is the safest country for pregnant women and that there is a clear distinction between necessary medical treatment in pregnancy and direct abortion, the aim of which is to end the baby’s life.

“Repeatedly, figures from the United Nations on maternal mortality show that Ireland is a world leader in this area. Yet instead of celebrating this achievement, pro-abortion campaigners repeatedly distort the facts.

“The adoption of the motion also shows that the Labour Party is ignoring the hurt that abortion causes women.

“Increasingly, research is showing that abortion is a leading risk factor for increased mental health problems for women.

“Despite this, Labour has assumed an outdated position that refuses to take on board this evidence, or the stories that many women are telling about the trauma that abortion has caused them.”

Dr Cullen added: “There is nothing progressive about adopting a policy that disregards the right to life and ignores the negative effects of abortion on women.

“This latest evidence of Labour’s aggressive stance in favour of abortion makes it all the more imperative that voters hold Fine Gael to their election promise to retain Ireland’s pro-life stance.”

Order and send Postcards to your local FG representatives today

During the recent Dáil debate on abortion the Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly strongly implied that the Government is committed to introducing some form of abortion legislation in the very near future. This is an extremely serious development. To read more details about the Minister's speech and the current situation, you can view our new briefing document here

Before the last General Election, Fine Gael gave a strong pro-life commitment. We must now hold them to that.

We are asking you to send a newly-printed postcard to each Fine Gael member of the Oireachtas in your constituency. It is vital that politicians receive physical postcards from constituents at this time.

A sample of the Postcard is set out below.

Please take one minute to order postcards here

Alternatively you can call or text (086) 2195 317 or email mail@prolifecampaign.ie to order postcards.

If you are a member of a prayer group, we will be happy to send you a prepared letter designed to read out to prayer groups which clearly explains the current threat.

This is a crucial time.

Please order cards now and share this message with as many pro-life people as possible. Thank you for your continued support.

US National Public Radio has just issued a mandatory censorship protocol for reporters.

They are no longer allowed to use the word ‘pro-life’ to those campaigning for the right to life of unborn children. They have to call them ‘abortion rights opponents’.

In describing those who support abortion, reporters have been forbidden to use the phrase ‘pro-abortion.’ They may, naturally, describe those who oppose abortion as ‘anti-abortion’.

Similar thought-control policies have been adopted by major US news corporations Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, CBS and NBC.

Dictats on what words reporters are allowed to use? Prescribed words? Forbidden words? Sound familiar?

This kind of ideological censorship was chillingly diagnosed by George Orwell in his final novel, 1984. The totalitarian society seeks to suppress and eventually eliminate dissent from the officially desired thoughts by gradually imposing a new obligatory official language called Newspeak so that dissenting opinion, not only cannot be articulated in a publicly approved way, but, in the end, cannot even be thought privately.

As Orwell put it, the purpose was not only to provide a medium of expression for the ‘proper’ worldview and mental habits, ‘but to make all other modes of thought impossible’ – it was intended that when Newspeak.had been adopted for once and for all, an unorthodox thought ‘should be literally unthinkable.’ This was done, he says, ‘chiefly by the eliminating undesirable words and by stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings.’ The imposed words, Orwell says, ‘had been deliberately constructed for political purposes’, that is, they ‘were intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the person using them.’

What a terrible irony – major news organizations in the free world are imposing Newspeak on their reporters.

Now we have major news outlets in the free world succumbing to the ideology of abortion rights which renders the unborn child what in Orwellian Newspeak presciently calls an ‘unperson.’

In Nazi Germany, gleichschaltung was the process by which one institution after another conformed to the totalitarian ideology in power, sometimes without even having to be compelled - they just saw the way the wind was blowing and got in line voluntarily.

The fact that major news institutions in the US are engaging in a self-imposed pro-abortion gleichschaltung is hard not to read it as a move of desperation on the part of the pro-abortion ideological elite.

They sense public opinion gradually shifting from majority pro-abortion to majority pro-life. They see this reflected in polls showing a majority in the US for the first time in recent years describing itself as pro-life rather than pro-abortion.

They see one movie after another exploring unexpected pregnancies in a positive light and showing ways forward, movies like Waitress, Knocked Up, Juno, Precious and Leonera, and on the other hand, the even more radical emergence of movies showing the dark side of abortion, movies like 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days.

They see women who’ve been through abortion coming forward together asking for their experience to be heard and heeded.

They’re losing the debate, so they’re changing tack. ‘If we can’t win the debate, let’s not have the debate, let’s suppress it’, they seem to be saying.

If news outlets opt to turn themselves into a pro-abortion echo-chamber – talking to one another in a fake language designed to pretend that abortion is not destroying a human life - they will lose half the public.

With the click of a mouse, the days of this kind of censorship are well and truly numbered.

Abortion and Ireland : Irish Examiner looks for headline in poll and ignores facts

A Red C online survey on abortion published in the Irish Examiner on the 21st January 2010 claims that 60% of 18-35 year olds support legalised abortion in Ireland.

Given the question posed, the results are not at all surprising. The survey makes no distinction between necessary medical treatments in pregnancy and induced abortion, (where the life of the unborn child is directly targeted). This in effect makes the findings meaningless and sheds no new light on public attitudes to abortion.

Polls, including one in 2009, that distinguish between standard medical treatments and induced abortion consistently show majority opposition to legal abortion.*

The latest Red C survey confines its interviews to 18-35 year olds. Clearly then the findings are not representative of the general population. Also, only 36% of the 18-35 year olds interviewed 'strongly' approve of legal abortion and not 60% as the Irish Examiner claimed.

The report also failed to draw attention to the known fact that 18-35 year olds start to increasingly identify with the pro-life position as they get older. This is borne out in all surveys on the issue.

All things considered, it was extremely misleading for the paper to run with today's front page headline declaring: 60% In Favour of Legal Abortion

The abortion debate is a very serious one and deserves more objective treatment than it received in today's Irish Examiner.