CASTLEBAR, CO. Mayo, September 14, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two local councils in Ireland have passed a motion in defence of the country’s constitutional protections for the unborn. In an all but unanimous vote, the Castlebar Town Council passed the motion on Tuesday, that said “the members resolve, in keeping with the will of the Irish people as emphatically expressed in the referendum of 1983, to oppose any form of legalisation of abortion under any circumstances”. The same motion had been passed unanimously the day before by the Mayo County Council.
Put forward by independent councillor Frank Durcan, the motion was opposed only by the Labour Party councillor for Castelbar, Harry Barrett.
At the meeting in Co. Mayo on Monday, Barrett said, “I have a major problem with this motion. In the A, B and C v. Ireland case that was taken to the European Court of Justice in 2010, it was found that Irish law breached the human rights of C, who was a cancer patient and her life was under threat because of the pregnancy. There is also an expert group that is part of the programme for Government that will report on this soon.”
The Labour party is the only party in Ireland that openly supports the legalisation of abortion as part of its platform, which it maintains despite the fact that the policy may be costing them voter support.
Durcan told the Connaught Telegraph newspaper he had tabled the motion on behalf of the Mayo Pro-Life Movement after the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil parties declined to do so. Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have expressed opposition to efforts by the Labour party and the abortion lobby to change the law.
While a growing number of TDs, including some Labour backbenchers, are stating their opposition to the idea and the issue is said to be dividing the coalition government, all parties are waiting for the report by the expert group, one that has been denounced by the pro-life movement as biased in favour of abortion.
Durcan called abortion a “humanitarian issue” and said that the law should remain unchanged. “We should not have to wait for the Oireachtas to state its position before we can express our views,” he added.
Barrett went on to say that “There are certain circumstances, that [abortion] may be always necessary. I always look at it as is if it was my wife or my daughter and what options would I hope to see.” Barrett named the examples of pregnancy due to rape, pregnant cancer patients and ectopic pregnancy.
This claim has been the cornerstone of the abortion lobby’s efforts to remove legal protections for the unborn in Ireland. It was debunked last week, however, when a group of medical experts, including gynaecologists, obstetricians and mental health practitioners released a statement saying that there is never any medical necessity for abortion, even in cases where a woman is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abortion-absolutely-never-medically-necessary-maternal-care-expert-symposiu/
A meeting of over 140 medical professionals dismissed the abortion lobby’s claims, saying, “As experienced practitioners and researchers in obstetrics and gynaecology,” the declaration said, “we affirm that direct abortion is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman.”
Responding to the oft-cited issue of treatment for ectopic pregnancy, in which the unborn child implants in the fallopian tube, the statement said, “We uphold that there is a fundamental difference between abortion and necessary medical treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother, even if such treatment results in the loss of life of her unborn child.”