The Government’s proposed abortion legislation
“heralds a much more liberal and aggressive abortion regime in Ireland”,
the Catholic bishops have said.
In their latest
weekly bulletin on the issue for reading and distribution at Masses over
the weekend, the bishops say the Protection of Life During Pregnancy
Bill would “provide the widest possible legal justification for
deliberately and intentionally destroying the life of the unborn child,
with no time limits and no mechanism for ensuring that the right to life
of the unborn is adequately vindicated as required by article 40.3.3 of
the Constitution.”
They add: “In practice, the
right to life of the unborn child will no longer be treated as equal”
and “this Bill represents a legislative and political ‘Trojan horse’.”
Medical evidence “does not support the view
that abortion is an appropriate treatment for expectant mothers with
suicidal feelings. Mothers in these situations deserve the best
professional care and support that can be provided. As well as involving
the deliberate killing of an unborn child, this Bill by promoting
abortion risks creating the very symptoms of suicidal feelings it claims
to address.”
The prelates also argue that “the
Abortion Bill makes it lawful to induce the premature delivery of an
unborn child in response to the suicidal feelings of a mother,
foreseeably exposing that child to the risk of serious and permanent
damage to her or his health. Where a child is perhaps only days away
from viability, the Bill is silent on whether the child will be killed
or delivered with serious risk to the health of the child.”
They
also ask: “Where are the mechanisms to vindicate the constitutional
right to life of the child in these circumstances? How can an act which
involves serious risk to the health of a child be reconciled with the
State’s duty in article 42A of the Constitution to ensure that in all
decisions the welfare of the child will be ‘the paramount
consideration’?”
The latter is a quote from Catholic Primate Cardinal
Seán Brady in his statement of Monday last.
Bishop
of Cork and Ross John Buckley is also quoted: “The abortion Bill . . .
is not just a tidying-up exercise, it sacrifices the innocent life of
one human being to another’s threat of self-destruction. This fails any
test of justice.”