Editor’s note. This appeared on the webpage of the LifeZine, the official publication of Family & Life. The “Oireachtas” is Ireland’s Parliament.
Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny
Before Christmas the Cabinet rushed a decision to introduce abortion legislation in line with the X Case judgment of 1992 [a controversial abortion decision rendered by the Irish Supreme Court]. The hearings held by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children in early January were intended to make the government’s decision seem more palatable. Instead they exposed the folly of this hasty decision when it became clear that it was unsupported by the most up-to-date empirical evidence.
The evidence given by the leading experts was unanimous on a number of key points:
- Abortion is NOT a treatment for suicidality, in fact it is often a contributing factor to suicide
- the two-patient model that respects the life of both mother and child is part of the reason why maternal mortality is so low in Ireland
- existing law and current medical practice have never prevented doctors from providing necessary medical treatment to pregnant women or put their lives at risk
The evidence presented to the Health Committee hearings undermines the position to which the government has committed itself. It also shows why the Supreme Court’s decision in the X Case was bad law and bad medicine.