DUBLIN, July 3, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The first vote on the abortion bill in the Irish legislature has overwhelmingly passed the bill on to its next phase. In a vote of 138–24, Irish TDs agreed that abortion should be made legal, through all nine months of pregnancy, if the mother threatens suicide. The government has claimed that this provision falls within the limits of the Constitution, which allows medical procedures that may unintentionally result in the death of an unborn child for serious medical reasons.
While Prime Minister Enda Kenny continues to insist that the bill, which now moves on to the committee phase, will only “clarify” the existing law, pro-life campaigners have said that the bill if the first step toward ushering in an abortion regime similar to that of the UK, where “social reasons” are cited for the vast majority of the country’s 200,000+ annual abortions.
Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute pointed out that nearly all the medical experts giving testimony during the debate said that abortion, the intentional killing of the unborn child, can never be considered legitimate treatment for any illness or psychological condition. Uí Bhriain told LifeSiteNews.com that Kenny is “determined” to bring the bill forward, in the face of the evidence and against the will of the majority of Irish public. But this determination will cost him and his party at the next election, she said.
“The problem from the beginning is that the government has this enormous majority. What we need to do now is push for a referendum, to bring the issue back to the public.”
She said Fine Gael will “pay a heavy price” for having brought the bill forward. “The party is in turmoil and will be in total disarray as growing numbers of Fine Gael TDs vote against this cruel and horrific bill.”
“Enda Kenny’s insistence on being led by his Labour Party coalition partners will seriously damage the party as huge numbers of voters seek alternatives to the party that broke their pro-life promise,” she said.
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Uí Bhriain said that Kenny is selling the bill using “smoke and mirrors,” falsely claiming that the bill won’t actually legalise abortion.
She pointed out that Kenny himself promised a year ago that his party would never bring forward legislation to legalise abortion. “One of the TDs who broke ranks said ‘We gave a promise two years ago not to do this and that was the reason we got such a huge vote from the electorate’.
The Life Institute and Youth Defence have organised a rally on Saturday that will push for a referendum.
“I think the resitance to abortion has remained very strong in Ireland,” said Uí Bhriain. “But Savita’s story was used by the abortion lobby to make people believe the bill merely ‘clarified’ the law.
She predicted that more TDs will come to oppose the bill’s suicide provision as it works its way through the committee stage.
She also extended congratulations to the 24 TDs who had put principle before politics or power, saying that history would remember their decision to “protect both mother and baby and to listen to the medical evidence.”