Our esteemed leaders have voted to reject legislation which would have permitted abortions to be carried out in Ireland under limited circumstances. During the X Case 20 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that abortion should be legal when a woman’s life is threatened by continuing her pregnancy. 20 years on and our leaders have avoided actually legislating for this.
The proposal to legislate for abortion under these limited circumstance was put forward by the Socialist Party TD Clare Daly, but it was roundly rejected by 111 votes to 20. Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil voted against the draft legislation.
According to Fine Gael TD Michelle Mulherin, fornication is “probably the single most likely cause of unwanted pregnancies in this country”. Fornication is sex outside of marriage, but what is largely overlooked in the abortion debate is that a very large percentage of unwanted pregnancies happen in marriages and long term partnerships. A great percentage of the women accessing abortion services in the UK and Europe are already mothers, but who do not have the financial means to care for another child. Unplanned pregnancies don’t just happen to teenagers who have had one too many Bacardi Breezers…
The stench of hypocrisy and cowardice coming from Labour o this issue is nauseating. It appears 20 years isn’t long enough for them.
I know. After all, successive Irish governments have been ignoring this so I guess they feel they need not be any different. God forbid anyone rocked the damn boat. And this isn’t abortion on demand. This is abortion when the mother’s life is in jeopardy. Seriously what is the problem with that? This is “pro-life” as it saves someone’s life – the mothers.
i meant to say this at the time, but as a woman who’s from mayo and fornicated plenty (and i do mean plenty) ms mulherin was an embarrassment to all fun loving girls from the west.