New Assault on Conscientious Objection to Abortion

International Planned Parenthood (IPPF) has claimed that a milestone decision on conscientious objection and abortion, has been delivered by the Council of Europe (COE) Committee on Social Rights, against Italy. The decision upholds the claim made by IPPF that, regulations relating to health personnel’s conscientious objection violate the right to health protection.

According to an IPPF statement the Committee’s decision supports their view that conscientious objection cannot stand in the way of women receiving the reproductive healthcare services guaranteed by Italian law. The Italian State  they say is obliged to make sure women get access to abortion services – as and when required.

The COE Parliamentary Assembley voted down a report and resolution in 2010 known as the Mc’Cafferty report that attacked Conscientious objection and thereby affirmed that:

 “no person and no hospital or institution shall be coerced, held liable or discriminated against in any manner because of a refusal to perform, accommodate, assist or submit to an abortion [...]”.

This new initiative by IPPF and the decision of the Committee, in addition to placing pressure on Italy to change its laws, appears to be their response to the Council of Europe Parliamentary decision on the Mc Cafferty report which had halted their plans for forcing medical personnel to carry out and participate in, the killing of unborn babies regardless of their strongly held convictions.

We are investigating the legal implications of the Committee’s decision and will report further on this in due course.

Ireland's maternity hospitals dangerously understaffed

One of the results of the collapse in Ireland’s economy in 2008 has been a drastic reduction in hospital patient care due to a moratorium on recruitment and nowhere is it more evident that in maternity hospitals. Unless immediate steps are taken to rectify the situation Ireland's proud record of having one of the lowest levels of maternal mortality in the world will come to a tragic end.

According to a survey carried out by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation INMO mothers and babies are being put at risk in Ireland’s maternity units which are at breaking point as they struggle with a severe lack of midwives.

Worryingly the survey found that no maternity unit has the recommended safe ratio of midwives to births – and Portlaoise hospital, where four babies died over a six year period, is the worst hit.

According to an article in the Irish Independent on March 7^th;

The moratorium on recruitment has led to a shortage of 621 midwives across the country, despite a predicted birth rate of nearly 69,000 this year.

The figures emerged in a survey by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), which described the shortage in several of the 19 hospitals as "critical".

The survey measured staffing levels against the internationally recommended ratio of one midwife to 29.5 births.

INMO president Claire Mahon warned: "It is quite clear that cuts in midwifery staffing has a direct consequence upon the standard of midwifery care available to mothers and babies."

It found the ratio in Irish hospitals varied from 1:39 in Holles St in Dublin to 1:55 in Portlaoise, which needs an additional 33 midwives. The overall national ratio is one midwife to 40 births.

Other units which are under strain include University Hospital Galway, where Savita Halappanavar died in 2012. It has a ratio of 1:41 births and needs another 32 midwives.

The maternity unit in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, which has been at the centre of major controversy in the last decade, has a ratio of 1:37 births.

"This level of understaffing is very disturbing in view of previous serious incidents which were the subject of external investigation along with pledges to implement a range of recommendations," said the report.

The ratio in Limerick Regional Hospital is 1:32 births and it is even higher in Cork University Hospital at 1:37. The Rotunda in Dublin has 188 midwives, but the ratio to births is 1:48. The report pointed out that the Coombe Maternity Hospital in Dublin, which has supplied staff to Portlaoise in the last week after the Midlands unit was deemed unsafe, is itself coping with a ratio of 1:40.

It points out that in Northern Ireland, where there were 25,269 births in 2012, there are 1,040 midwives, with a ratio of 1:24.

Catholic schools are not entitled to promote Catholic views on sexuality according to former HSE regional manager

A former Health Services Executive (HSE), regional manager of health promotion, Dr Jackie Jones in an article in the Irish Times March 5^th unbelievably claims Catholic schools are not entitled to promote Catholic views on sexuality.

According to Dr Jones ‘Schools funded by taxpayers cannot include abstinence as part of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE). The R in RSE stands for relationships, not religion.’ She also claims that, ‘access to sex education is a right for students under the terms of Article 11.2 of the European Social Charter.’ Other views expressed by Dr Jones in her article include describing abstinence until marriage as an, ‘unachievable objective’, and despite convincing evidence to the contrary she claims that abstinence programmes do not delay sexual activity.

The Irish Times article follows and can be found on thislink

Unbelievably, talks on sexual abstinence are still delivered to post-primary school students by external agencies. A spokeswoman for an organisation called Pure in Heart was interviewed last week on RTÉ ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke.

Her message was it’s good to be pure and abstaining from sexual activity until marriage is the best option. Listeners, who texted in their views, were largely in favour of chastity education, thought teaching about purity was “refreshing”, and Catholic schools were entitled to promote Catholic views on sexuality. They are not.

Schools funded by taxpayers cannot include abstinence as part of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE). The R in RSE stands for relationships, not religion.

A Department of Education and Skills (DES) circular (0037/2010) issued to post-primary schools says that access to sex education is a right for students under the terms of Article 11.2 of the European Social Charter.

This must be “objective, based on contemporary scientific evidence and does not involve censoring, withholding or intentionally misrepresenting information”.

All aspects of the RSE programme must be taught, including contraception, sexually transmitted infections and sexual orientation. “Elements of the programme cannot be omitted on the grounds of school ethos.” Each school must have an RSE policy, including how invited external agencies fit into the overall plan.

Circular 0023/2010 about RSE, Best Practice Guidelines for Post-Primary Schools , spells out the precise criteria that apply to classroom visitors.

“All programmes and events delivered by visitors and external agencies must use appropriate, evidence-based methodologies with clear educational outcomes.”

What might these be for abstinence programmes? Students will abstain from sexual activity until marriage? An unachievable objective.

Convincing evidence

There is convincing evidence that abstinence programmes do not delay sexual activity, have no impact on frequency of sexual activity or number of partners.

Perhaps the objective is that students will understand they can choose not to have sex? Surely they know this already. That is the whole purpose of the RSE programme.

Anyone over 17 years of age, married or single, gay or straight, can choose to have, or not have, consensual sex at any time.

The guidelines also spell out teaching approaches that should not be used.

Schools are advised to avoid the following methods: use of scare tactics (masturbation causes depression); sensationalist interventions (showing teenagers unconscious from alcohol use); testimonials (inviting in an ex-addict, alcoholic or sex abstainer); information-only interventions (a talk from a health specialist on sexually transmitted infections); once-off/short- term interventions (talks on hygiene by nurses or any other health topic); normalising risky behaviour (giving the impression that most teenagers get drunk, have sex and take drugs) and didactic methods (Powerpoint presentations).

Teenagers need comprehensive sexuality education which, theoretically, is delivered by the RSE programme. Unfortunately, whatever they are learning, it is not good enough.

Not working

The messages about choice, sexual rights, consent, and using negotiation skills are not getting through.

A January 2014 study, commissioned by Rape Crisis Network Ireland, found that university students, who would have taken the RSE programme just a few years before, see consent as a tacit unspoken process.

“The male gender role was to push the progression onward through successive stages, while the female role was described as acquiescing, showing willingness, or acting as gatekeepers to halt progression.

“It was seen as weird or amusing to consider consent as something that would be explicitly negotiated.”

Part of the problem is that while schools tick the boxes to say RSE is covered, there is no evidence about the quality of classes. A report published in January 2014, Results of Department of Education and Skills ‘Lifeskills’ Survey, 2012, showed that available data “do not provide any insight into the quality of RSE provision within schools”.

No one knows what contribution external agencies and visiting speakers make to learning outcomes even though they are used to support RSE programmes in 95 per cent of post-primary schools.

In most schools the input of the external facilitators is not effectively integrated into the relevant programme plan.

Programmes linking abstinence to purity, implying that anyone who engages in sex outside marriage is contaminated, have no place in schools.

Marriage does not confer special wisdom about sex, or any other important human experience, which magically descends on a couple on the day of the ceremony. Abstinence education is like trying to teach someone to ride a bike with the brakes permanently on. It can’t be done.

The DES needs to stop these nonsense interventions now and start measuring the quality of RSE classes.

Dr Jacky Jones is a former HSE regional manager of health promotion

BELGIAN KING SIGNS CHILD EUTHANASIA LAW

Despite the many requests for him to refuse to sign the new and controversial Bill recently passed by Parliament, Belgium’s King Philippe has signed into law the right of minors to seek euthanasia.

 Many organizations and petitions were made to the King to refuse to sign the measure including a petition, launched by an Austrian couple, the parents of a large family which was signed by more than 200,000 people from all over Europe.

In the intervening period between the passing of the new law by the parliament and its signing by King Philippe last Sunday, there was speculation that he may have followed in the footsteps of his uncle, the late King Baudouin, who in the 1990s refused to sign an abortion law.

Article from RT news reprinted below

Belgium’s king has signed into law a controversial bill that will allow for chronically ill children to be euthanized, local media reports. The bill, while widely opposed by religious groups, has broadly support among the public.

Belgian newspapers reported that King Philippe signed the bill into law Sunday, putting to rest weeks of speculation on whether he would approve the law amid strong opposition from Catholic organizations throughout Europe.

The legislation, which grants children the right to request euthanasia if they are “in great pain” and there is no available treatment, makes Belgium the first country in the world where the age of the child is not taken into consideration. Similar legislation exists in the Netherlands, though only for children over the age of 12. In both countries, children are required to receive the consent of parents, doctors and psychiatrists.

The Belgian Catholic Church opposes the law, earlier describing it as a “step too far.” European Catholics also petitioned the king to veto the bill.

In late February, a Spanish conservative lobby delivered more than 200,000 signatures to King Philippe in Brussels, demanding that he not sign the bill. One of the petition’s organizers, Alvaro Zulueta, says more than 5,000 of the signatures came from concerned Belgians, although Italians made up the largest number of respondents, AFP reported.

Although King Philippe’s signature was technically necessary for the bill to pass, it would have been highly unusual for the constitutional monarch not to approve the legislation.

The bill passed the Belgium House of Representatives 86-44 with 12 abstentions February 13, following approval by the Senate last December. Some lawmakers strongly contested the bill, which was proposed by the ruling Socialist Party. The bill was opposed by the Christian Democratic and Flemish parties, which earlier threatened to take the proposal before the European Court of Human Rights.

Belgium became the second country in the world after its neighbor, The Netherlands, to legalize euthanasia following the 2002 Belgium Act on Euthanasia.

Since that time, the number of reported cases of euthanasia in Belgium has reached 1,400 per year.

Critics say it has fundamentally changed Belgium society. In one case in December 2012, Doctors announced that they had euthanized 45-year-old deaf identical twins who were going blind and believed they had nothing left to live for.

Critics said the brothers were not terminally ill nor suffering physical pain, and it took them two years before they found doctors who would perform the procedure. According to Bioedge, a doctor at their local hospital said, “I do not think this was what the legislation meant by 'unbearable suffering.’"

In another case, a 44-year-old woman with chronic anorexia nervosa was euthanized. A 64-year-old woman suffering from chronic depression was also euthanized without informing her relatives. The doctors involved claimed the cases were exceptional, saying all legal obligations were met.

Despite more extreme cases which have gathered worldwide media attention, a recent public survey earlier found that 75 percent of Belgians supported the child euthanasia measure.

National Vigil for Life Merrion Square Dublin Saturday May 3rd

The Fine Gael Party promised voters they would not legalise abortion. They broke that promise. The pro-life movement gave a commitment that it would not sit back and accept this new law. The National Vigil for Life on 3rd May is a clear sign that we will not be breaking our promise.

On 3rd May, we will have an opportunity to show that, far from losing heart, we are more committed than ever. This is, truly, a moment in which we have to persevere for what is right. In introducing abortion the Government knew exactly what it was doing and that there was no medical or legal necessity for it.

Each one of us has to decide whether to sit this one out or step up to the mark and join the pro-life fightback. Political promise-breaking and groupthink in politics and the media are two of the most damaging aspects of public life in Ireland today. They have to be challenged.

To organise a bus or to find buses in your area, phone: Maria 086 406 9660, Denise 087 266 8702 or Katie 085 871 1100

For more info email: NationalVigilforLife@gmail.com