New abortion controversy in Ireland

The Independent reports on a new and controversial case in Ireland in which a woman was refused an abortion under Ireland’s new abortion laws and that her baby was subsequently prematurely delivered at 25 weeks by Caesarean section.

According to some reports the woman was a foreign national, an asylum seeker, who was already pregnant when she arrived in Ireland in April. The termination took place in the second trimester of the pregnancy resulting in the baby being born at 25 weeks.

The woman who is reported to have sought an abortion under the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, 2013 claimed to be suicidal and was assessed by a panel of experts as set out in the legislation.

The panel of experts apparently differed on the question of abortion as the child had already reached viability, resulting in a decision to deliver the baby by caesarean section.

It has also been reported that the Bishop of Elphin, Kevin Doran, whilst agreeing that it is better that the child is still alive has raised pertinent questions about the consequences of the early delivery of the baby

He told the Irish Independent: "The removal of a child from the womb in that kind of context is really unethical and there is no other way of putting it. It was far better that the child was removed from the womb to be saved than to be aborted, but it is not natural."

The Master of the Rotunda Hospital, Sam Coulter Smith said the baby will face enormous’ health challenges and has just a 20-30pc chance of growing up without any health issues.

 “I think the challenges are enormous. A baby born at 24 or 25 weeks is going to spend a long period of time in neonatal intensive care”, he told Sean O’Rourke on Radio One this morning.

He also commented on the likely cost to the health service which he said would probably be in the order of €60-90k,

The baby according to Smith will probably stay for 15 or 16 weeks in intensive care. “Most of these babies will survive, 80-90pc of them will survive. - but only 20 -30 pc will have intact survival.” He added that many of the babies will grow up with significant health problems.

12 year-old girl dies within hours of having HPV vaccine.

Serious questions arise once again, about the safety of the HPV vaccine, after the sudden death of a seemingly healthy 12 year-old girl, within hours of having the vaccine. See two of the previous ELN blog-posts on this vaccine, JULY 5th 2008, and SEPTEMBER 6th 2011.

Twelve year-old Meredith Prohaska from Wisconsin, who collapsed and died hours after having the HPV vaccination, had complained of feeling tired after getting the vaccine.

Metedith’s distraught mother is asking 'Did the HPV vaccine kill my daughter’ and demanding answers after her healthy and active daughter collapsed and died after getting vaccine.

The Daily Mail reported August 9^th that Meredith’s parents are questioning whether the HPV vaccine was the cause of her death. See also a report which appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Daily Mail article says;

Rebecca Prohaska is so desperate for answers as to why her fit and healthy daughter, Meredith, died that she agreed for medical examiners to take the girl's brain away for testing.

Meredith, who loved to play basketball, was given the routine vaccine offered to all children of her age just hours before she died.

When she returned home from the doctor's appointment, the 12-year-old complained of feeling sleepy, and napped for much of the day.

But when Mrs Prohaska returned home from picking up dinner at about 4pm, she found her daughter face down on the living room floor.

She had vomited, her lips were purple, and she wasn't breathing. Meredith was rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Doctors have so far been unable to give a reason for why the seemingly healthy schoolgirl died.

Abortion law imposes no time limit, doctors told

The Independent reports today that doctors, who have been issued with guidelines on the new abortion law, can intervene to save the life of a mother even in cases where the pregnancy is well advanced.

It should be noted that the guidelines referred to have not yet been publicly released although the Irish Times reported July 3rd 2014 that detailed abortion guidelines had been circulated to a number of health professionals. No formal announcement has yet been made, either by the HSE or the Department of Health and Children, to the effect that the guidelines have been published and a recent check on both websites drew a blank. See previous BLOGPOST.

Abortion is now legal in Ireland up to birth, based on a threat of suicide, even though the Government knew before the law was passed that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal feelings.

The guidelines according to the article point out that the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, passed last summer, has no time limit imposed for carrying out a procedure.

The document stresses that while doctors are required to "preserve unborn human life as far as practicable" they cannot compromise the woman's right to life.

The legislation sets out no time limit for doctors carrying out a medical procedure where a pregnant woman's life is in real and substantial danger due to physical complications or suicide risk.

The guidelines, drawn up over many months by an expert committee, are aimed at giving advice to doctors on the practical application of the law, setting out the form of assessment involved as well as their obligations to a woman whose pregnancy may put her life at risk

If the unborn baby has reached viability and the woman's life is in danger "the best course of action may be deemed to be an early induction or caesarean section," the document added.

"In such cases, the medical procedure would not fall under the Act as it is not a medical procedure during which or as a result of which an unborn human life is ended."

Once delivered, medical staff should ensure the necessary care for the baby in accordance with clinical guidelines and best practice.

In cases where a woman's life is in danger due to "suicide intent" three doctors, including two psychiatrists and an obstetrician, must certify the termination of pregnancy is the only way of averting the risk to her life.

A woman turned down for an abortion, due to physical or suicide risk, must apply in writing for a review and a committee must be convened no later than three days after receipt of the application.

A doctor involved in the initial assessment is disqualified from sitting on the review committee. The review must be completed within seven days and the decision must an unanimous one.

UK birthrate for 2013 at 1.85 TFR down 4.3% compared to 2012

The UK Office for National Statistics has released its statistical bulletin in respect of births in England and Wales for the year 2013.

• There were 698,512 live births in England and Wales in 2013, a decrease of 4.3% from 729,674 in 2012.
• In 2013, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) decreased to 1.85 children per woman, from 1.94 in 2012.
• In 2013 the stillbirth rate fell to 4.7 per thousand total births, from 4.9 in 2012.
• The average age of mothers in 2013 increased to 30.0 years, compared with 29.8 years in 2012.
• Over a quarter (26.5%) of live births were to mothers born outside the UK; a small increase compared with 25.9% in 2012.

Summary

This bulletin presents summary statistics of live births and stillbirths in England and Wales in 2013.

The birth statistics reported include counts of live births and stillbirths, fertility rates by age of mother and by area of usual residence, and the percentage of births to mothers born outside the UK.

This is the first time that 2013 annual figures for births in England and Wales have been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Live Births (Numbers and Rates)

There were 698,512 live births in England and Wales in 2013, compared with 729,674 in 2012 (a fall of 4.3%). This fall represents a change to the increasing numbers of births that has been reported each year since a low in 2001, with the exception of a 0.3% fall in 2009. Between 2001 and 2012 live births rose by 23%. The fall in live births in 2013 represents the largest percentage annual decrease since 1975.

Comment

Current UK and European policies and lifestyle are leading to depopulation, decline and eventual disaster unless there is a major change in direction. In spite of the obvious consequences of its current strategies and lifestyle the UK and indeed the rest of Europe continues relentlessly to choose policies that lead to more abortion and contraception under code-words such as reproductive rights, and reproductive health choices and services. The essential question is, are we going to remain captive to anti life ideologies which can only spell disaster? There is time to change but time is short and the consequences are of huge significance.

Will no UN member state confront the excesses of out of control UN committees?

We reported last week that Ireland was due to appear before the human Rights Committee of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on July 14th and 15th in Geneva as part of its fourth periodic report to that committee.

The  Irish government was harangued by Committee members and pro-abortion NGO’s on the issue of availability of abortion in Ireland which they falsely claimied  violates the terms of the Convention.

One member of the Committee for example asked Irish Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald to explain how Ireland “reconciles its current laws on abortion with its obligations [under the treaty] --- which is, I may remind you --- an absolute right?"

This claim is absolute nonsense, there is no right to abortion in the ICCPR, nor is there such a right in any other UN convention. The right to life of every human being is however, protected in this treaty.

Article 6.1 and 6.5 read as follows:

1. Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.

5. Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women.

The unborn child is a member of the human family and as such deserves the full protection set out in paragraph 6. Ideologically driven reinterpretation of the treaty by the committee however, in the form of general comments, militates against the unborn.

Reinterpretation of treaties commenced in 1996 when the then High Commissioner for Human Rights, together with a representatives from UNFPA, UN treaty monitoring bodies and select NGOs met at Glen Cove in New York to develop a strategy they said would “determine how the right to abortion-on-demand could be found in universally accepted norms such as the right to life.”

 They did this by the creation of a network of ‘experts’, to re-interpret UN Treaties and Conventions. Despite the fact that the wording of each of the treaties was negotiated down to the last comma they decided that treaties are “living breathing documents” that can evolve over time and that convention provisions may be reinterpreted to establish a global right to abortion and any other so called right they would like to establish.

Treaty monitoring Committees are charged with ensuring that member states live up to treaty obligations but are not permitted to change the substance of any Treaty or Convention, only an assembly of member states can do so. Nevertheless UN committees have issued general comments expanding the intent of the treaties and conventions and have instructed many sovereign nations either to introduce or liberalize abortion.

The Committee warned that Ireland could still in breach of human rights legislation on the issue of abortion because it criminalises pregnant women who seek an abortion following a rape or due to a fatal foetal abnormality.

The committee also told the Irish delegation that, the fact Ireland’s laws have been debated in public and passed by parliament, does not prevent a dereliction of duty in terms of fulfilling the country’s human rights commitments.

Committee member Cornelis Flinterman asked the minister directly when was the last time that the Irish public has had an opportunity to vote in a referendum on the issue of abortion in light of opinion polls he says indicated supported for termination for medical reasons.

Minister Fitzgerald told the Committee that the Irish Government has “no solution” to the problem of women being unable to afford to travel overseas to undergo a termination for medical reasons and that the most recent referendum was in 2002 on the issue of suicide as a risk to the life of a pregnant woman. She added that another referendum would be required to address the issues raised by the committee but that the recent Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act had provided clarity to both doctors and women on some important issues.

The only pro-life NGO to testify in Geneva in support of the right to life Dr. Thomas Finegan correctly told the committee, "there is no such thing as a right to abortion in international human rights law" and that the "unborn child is recognized as a human rights subject by various international human rights provisions."

He further said the committee had no legal authority to issue binding interpretations of the treaty. The chairman of the Committee, Sir Nigel Rodley, then described Finegan's testimony as, "breathtakingly arrogant."