Ireland's largest ever pro-life gathering

Irelands largest pro-life vigil so far took place on Saturday last June 8^th when a record number of people attended the National Vigil for Life in Dublin to demonstrate that the majority is opposed to the government’s plans to introduce abortion. The Vigil in Merrion Square was the largest pro-life demonstration ever seen in Ireland with attendance in excess of 40,000.

In the words of one young woman delighted with the turnout, ‘surely the Government must listen now’.

The vigil was addressed by a number of pro-life individuals from various groups

Caroline Simons of PLC told the meeting;

“The Government must stop misrepresenting its proposed abortion legislation as restrictive and face up to the dangers in its abortion plan.

The turnout today shows that the middle ground of Irish opinion is increasingly concerned about the Government’s abortion legislation, there are people here who never attended a pro-life event before. The message is getting through that this legislation is not restrictive or about saving women and children’s lives, despite the repeated claims by the Taoiseach and his Government.”

“It’s time for the spin to stop. The medical profession is radically divided over this because there is nothing evidence-based about the claim that abortion can be the right response to a suicide threat,” Simons said. “People’s trust in politicians would “suffer badly the more it appears that the Government is giving false reassurances.”

“It’s clear from who’s cheer-leading this bill what it’s really about,” she said, “and that’s abortion on request. This is inevitable, once a suicide threat is the basis for certifying an abortion.”

Other speakers to address the event were Jennifer Kehoe, Maria Steen and Íde Nic Mathúna and John Mc Areavey.

Irish Government appeals surrogacy judgement to Supreme Court

The Irish Government yesterday announced that the judgement of Mr Henry Abbott in the recent surrogacy case is being appealed to the Supreme Court to clarify what they describe as, ‘a number of points of law of exceptional public importance.’

According to the Government statement, which is set out fully below, the judgement raises important questions about how motherhood may be determined under Irish law and has potentially very serious consequences which could, by linking motherhood exclusively to genetic connection, affect a potentially large number of families.

The statement crucially states about the judgement ‘It may also have the effect of tying the hands of the Oireachtas in how it may legislate, in the future, for the complex areas of surrogacy and assisted human reproduction.’

Mr Justice Abbott ruled in favour of the genetic parents in this case, and rejected the customary principle, mater semper certa est, a principle that means that the mother who gives birth, is the legally recognized mother. In coming to this judgement Mr. Justice Henry Abbott recognized the validity of the DNA test for paternity and maternity.

When is DNA set down? It is set down on the completion of fertilization. In other words, Mr Justice Abbott in recognizing DNA as the basis for establishing parenthood has recognized, in effect, that on fertilization the individual human being comes into existence.

This judgement has major implications for the current Government proposals to legislate for the introduction of abortion, leaving it with no option but to appeal to the Supreme Court because of its potential to scupper the proposed legislation

Either way the Government is in a difficult position, on the one hand there will be anger and disappointment at the decision, by families who wish to register children, born using surrogate mothers, as their own, then there is the potential of the judgement to scupper the Government's pro-abortion legislation. On the other hand if the appeal is successful then the use of DNA evidence in court will be called into question with the possible consequences that most of the rape case judgements, murder cases judgements, robbery and sundry other judgements –– going back for as long as the DNA test has been in use –, would have to be declared unsound, and all the criminals involved would have to be released immediately – an appalling vista. 

The Government may now have no option but to defer the enactment of their pro-abortion legislation until after the Supreme Court rules on this issue, which we understand is to be fast tracked.

See related articles in the Irish Independent and the Irish Times

Government Statement

Statement in relation to High Court judgement in the case of MR, DR, OR and CR v An tÁrd Chlaraitheoir [Registrar General], Ireland & the Attorney General

While extremely mindful of the family at the centre of this case, the Government has agreed that the above judgement should be appealed by the Registrar General to the Supreme Court to clarify a number of points of law of exceptional public importance.

The judgement raises important questions about how motherhood may be determined under Irish law and has potentially very serious consequences which could, by linking motherhood exclusively to genetic connection, affect a potentially large number of families. It may also have the effect of tying the hands of the Oireachtas in how it may legislate, in the future, for the complex areas of surrogacy and assisted human reproduction.

The appeal is therefore considered necessary both to bring certainty to this vital area of law and to ensure that the legislature's scope to legislate is absolutely clear. Such clarity is especially important because the Government is committed to legislating to address the wider issues surrounding assisted human reproduction, including surrogacy. Legislation is currently being prepared with a view to being brought to Government later this year.

Department of Social Protection 6th June 2013

Unborn Babies Can Show Pain In The Womb

A Sky News report today tells us that unborn babies can show pain in the womb and that they also practice facial expressions showing pain while they are in the womb. 

This news report suggests that babies are only practicing for when they are born rather than accepting that they can actually feel pain in the womb. It will be interesting to see what the actual report says when it becomes available.

We reported in 2008 on the Work of Professor Jeronima Teixera who carried out groundbreaking research into foetal sentience, specifically the capacity of the unborn baby to experience pain. Her research, the first of its kind provided compelling evidence that the unborn baby is capable of feeling pain from as early as six weeks gestation.

The Sky report tells us:

Researchers from Durham and Lancaster Universities say a foetus' ability to show pain through facial expressions is a developmental process which helps the unborn baby prepare for life after birth.

The research was carried out by creating scans of 15 healthy foetuses, and could give doctors another index of the health of an unborn baby.

The study showed a foetus is capable of making simple one-dimensional expressions at 24 weeks, such as the ability to move the lips to form a smile.

By the time a mother is 36 weeks into her pregnancy, a foetus can perform complex multi-dimensional expressions which can be recognised as showing pain.

Lead researcher Dr Nadja Reissland, of Durham University's Department of Psychology, said: 

"It is vital for infants to be able to show pain as soon as they are born so that they can communicate any distress or pain they might feel to their carers.

"Our results show that healthy foetuses 'learn' to combine the necessary facial movements before they are born.

"This suggests that we can determine the normal development of facial movements and potentially identify abnormal development too. This could then provide a further medical indication of the health of the unborn baby." 

The study is due to be published in the academic journal PLOS ONE.

Kenny driving plan to legalise abortion

The Alive newspaper in its latest edition makes some very pertinent points in respect of the Irish Government drive to legalise abortion.

The article reads;

Why Enda Kenny is pushing so strongly to legalise the killing of unborn children in

Ireland is baffling.

On several occasions in the past Mr Kenny publicly proclaimed his Catholic faith in order to advance his political agenda.

Has he undergone a radical religious change for the worse? Or was it hypocrisy all along? Were his pre-election, prolife promises sheer cynicism?

He has embarked on a course of action that is an abomination not only to Christian faith but to basic humanity.

• He knows that he is working for nothing less than to legalise the brutal killing of unborn children.

• He knows that this is contrary to the divine commandment which provides the foundation for all civilisation: Thou shalt not kill.

• He knows that he is leading the country into hardness of heart and radical opposition to God’s will.

• He knows that there are no medical grounds for such an evil anti-child and anti-mother measure.

Not open to reason, and backed by morally corrupt media, he seems determined to impose an horrific evil on society.

Prolife activists and countless voters use reason in a bid to get him to reconsider his position.

Such argument is important in order to show the depth of the evil proposed. But is it ultimately futile?

The issue is no longer at this level. Mr Kenny already knows the arguments and has shut himself off from them.

Now we are dealing with naked, irrational force and Kenny’s corruption of medicine and the legal and political processes.

Fine Gael is destroying the moral foundation of democracy, putting in its place the ruthless and tyrannical arrogance of the powerful. This reduces politics to gangland thuggery at its worst.

If successful, Kenny’s decision to legalise the ultimate violence against unborn children will fundamentally undermine respect for all human life and brutalise our society.

And it will continue to poison political life in Ireland until the diabolical evil is eventually undone.

137 credible worldwide studies link induced legal abortion to pre-term births

Denise Mountenay of Canada Silent no More asks some very pertinent questions which are relevant everywhere but particularly so in Ireland at this time.

Denise asks,

Do you know that there are now not one or two, or 5 or 10 studies...no, not 20 or 30 studies, but now 137 credible worldwide STUDIES linking induced LEGAL Abortion to women giving preterm BIRTHS to subsequent children? Sometimes resulting in Cerebral Palsy and other disabilities not to mention depression, substance abuse, breast cancer etc....on top of it.

Denise points out, it is settled science, yet The World Health Organization, large corporations and medical associations continue to HIDE this TRUTH because of the ‘A’ word! God help me she says to REACH pregnant women with the TRUTH about the terrible consequences of abortion!

Denise also poses a question about Canada which is also relevant everywhere;

    Why are Canadians paying for an elective procedure that kills children before they are born, damages women and causes pre-term births too.