Friday May 28, 2010
Irish Abortionist Group Demands Legal Abortion
By Hilary White
DUBLIN, May 28, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The abortionist group, the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) has demanded that the Irish government legalize abortion, and blasted it for refusing to liberalize the country’s abortion laws, calling it “political cowardice.”
The occasion for the attack was the publication of statistics this week by the UK department of health showing that 4,422 women traveled from Ireland to England and Wales in 2009 to abort their children.
IFPA Chief executive Niall Behan told the Herald, “These figures are compelling evidence of the need for domestic-based abortion services in Ireland. The criminalisation of abortion has little impact on abortion rates, it merely adds to the burden and stress suffered by women experiencing crisis pregnancies.”
The pro-life educational group Youth Defence has said that abortionist groups like IFPA are desperate to pressure government to change the law in the face of the strong pro-life position of the Irish public. A recent opinion poll showed overwhelming support for Ireland’s pro-life laws, with 70 per cent saying they want to keep the country’s constitutional protection for the unborn.
Youth Defence spokesman Rebecca Rougheen noted that the numbers of women travelling to the UK to abort are down 178 from 2008. She told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that it is the educational efforts by the pro-life movement, not lack of opportunity, that has caused a drop in abortion figures.
Rougheen also told LSN that it is absurd to demand abortion be legalized because some women go to the UK to have abortions. “This is like saying drugs should be legalised because some people use them.”
Educational campaigns in Ireland have hurt the abortion industry’s claims that abortion is a legitimate medical treatment, she said, and raised awareness of the damage to mothers and children caused by abortion.
She cited pro-life websites and new technologies showing the development of the child in the womb that are especially popular with young people.
“The evidence that abortion is damaging women is also now undeniable – and this is filtering through despite media under-reportage,” Rougheen said.
At the same time Marie Stopes International is running its television ads for abortion in the UK, Youth Defence is launching a national advertising campaign next week to appear in all major newspapers countering the claim that a ban on abortion is a threat to women’s lives. “We hope it will be a decisive factor in nailing the lie that claims abortion is ever medically necessary,” the group says.
Irish pro-abortion groups have recently claimed that the Irish ban on abortion is endangering women’s lives. In addition, Youth Defence says, they are working to blur the distinction between direct abortion and medical treatments for conditions such as cancer or ectopic pregnancy, in an effort to counter public support for the law.
The ads, they said, will “bring real-life stories to the attention of the public so that they can understand that abortion campaigners are not only being dishonest, they are hurting mothers who have tragically lost their children.”