It seems that the Irish Parliament voted overwhelmingly to reject a Bill which would have allowed the abortion up to birth to save the life of the mother.
It can be seen in the UK how that law would have degenerated. From being to save the the "life" of the mother it would have morphed into saving the "mental health" of the mother... and would actually come to mean whenever a mother wanted it.
The defeat is truly good news, which, surprisingly, doesn't seem to have hit the mainstream media...
Twitch of the mantilla to those wonderful Sisters of the Gospel of Life (more of those "proper" sisters I've been on about!)
Don't celebrate too much. The Government imposed a 3 line whip on its two parties to vote no but announced its intention to bring forward its own legislation in due course. That bill will have to reflect the parameters of the X judgment handed down by the Supreme Court so it could all yet go to Hell in a Handcart as the saying goes. The real test will be how much cover will the expert group give the Government to legalise abortion? After that, how willing is Enda Kenny to court electoral suicide by promoting abortion? The only reason he leads the senior coalition partner is that the Labour party were targeted by the ProLife Campaign for being a pro abortion party. They lost easily winnable seats as a result, while Fine Gael won seats by making ProLife noises. We just have to hope that FG love their jobs more than they love plaudits from RTE or the Irish Times. Oremus!
ReplyDeleteDitto to what Eamonn so clearly explained. The fight is not over, but it is a fact that the Labour Party can make a comeback, as even some Catholics support it. Also, I am not convinced the Fine Gael will hold the pro-life position, as some of its members have already come out in favor of abortion. Sadly, there is not a strong grass-roots movement for life, as in the States in Ireland, and people take too much for granted.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how accurate the comment about the lack of a grassroots prolife movement in Ireland is. It's precisely that movement that cooked Gilmore's goose in the last election, and gave Kenny his electoral edge. It remains to be seen if it can be mobilised to punish them next time out.
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