Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick
Editor’s note. This comes courtesy of the Irish pro-life organization Precious Life. BPAS refers to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. The Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution provides equal rights to the mother and the unborn child and is under furious attack. Fine Gael is a political party. This has been edited for clarity.
On November 22, Patricia Lohr, the American Medical Director of BPAS, appeared in front of the Irish Joint Committee examining the Eighth Amendment, and her answers shocked and appalled some of the TDs.
began his questioning of Lohr by referring to [BPAS CEO] Ann Furedi’s comments on the television program “Loose Women” which sent widespread shockwaves when she made them back on August 15th. She shocked panelists on the daytime television show by saying that the 24 week limit on abortion should be scrapped entirely, and that it was “always down to the woman” if she wanted to abort her baby because it was the wrong gender.
Even so-called ‘progressive’ Brits were stunned watching Furedi excuse abortion on the basis of the baby’s sex.
What made Furedi’s appearance on the show most chilling was perhaps fundamentally the manner in which she openly called the abortion victim the ‘baby’ as opposed to using common pro-abortion euphemisms, such as the ‘fetus’ or a ‘clump of cells’.
The show, a firm fixture at the heart of daytime television, isn’t exactly renowned for being the most socially conservative programme on TV. However, it was hard for panelists to hide their shock and disdain at the extremity conveyed by Ms. Furedi. Her comments sent shockwaves across the studio as she advocated for extreme and limitless abortion proposals, stating that abortion should be allowed up to birth, including if the baby’s a girl rather than a boy.
Rather than attempting to weather the storm or veil some of Furedi’s comments in ambiguity, Lohr openly defended Furedi’s earlier comments. Though she claimed not to have seen the programme or know the content of her boss’ statement, Dr. Lohr described situations when legal grounds could be used to facilitate a sex selective abortion, and actually backed up Furedi’s: “I absolutely agree with the view that it is for the woman to decide when and whether she is ready to parent.”
Mr. Fitzpatrick was outspoken in his pro-life defence, saying that BPAS is “a horrifying charity, where its CEO is encouraging gender selection.” He also said that the vast majority of people would be horrified at the idea of abortion after 24 weeks, which Furedi promoted, and that he was “very disappointed” that Dr. Lohr was unable to answer questions on how many abortions BPAS had carried out on the grounds of the baby having a chromosomal condition such as Down syndrome.
Dr. Lohr also came up against challenging questions from Senator Ronan Mullen, who began by noting that BPAS had been reprimanded by the UK’s Care Quality Commission (CQC) after its Merseyside clinic was found to have a catalogue of safety issues in an abysmal report. It’s no secret that the UK’s abortion industry is knee-deep in accusations of unsafe and unethical practices.
He also asked her how many abortions she had personally been involved in, to which she answered: “I don’t think I can give you a number. Hundreds, thousands, maybe – I don’t keep track.”
This casual and callous disregard for human life exemplifies the very reason we must protect the eighth amendment in Ireland and continue to cherish all the children of the nation equally – life is for everyone, not just for the planned, privileged or the perfect.