PROTECT LIFE FROM THE MOMENT OF CONCEPTION -
Says Archbishop Brown, Papal Nuncio
Ireland United for Life welcomes the statement from
Archbishop Brown, Papal Nuncio to Ireland, who states that; “2013 is an
incredibly important one for the sanctity of human life in Ireland and in other
nations as well. People of conscience from all religions and from no religion
need to work vigorously and courageously to protect and nurture human life from
conception to natural death."
It is now clear that political parties and party leaders
cannot be trusted to keep their pre election promises. Pro life people must
unite to protect life from the moment of conception. Ireland United for Life is
clear in that there must be no legislation for abortion - no deals, no more
broken promises, no redefining of when life begins and no half truths.
The final day of the recent "Health hearings on
abortion" was a talking shop and all about the way to introduce abortion,
with all arguments against ignored and with a determination to set aside the
1861 Offences Against the Person Act. We must ask - why do those seeking to
introduce abortion want to repeal the 1861 Act?
The Government does not have the legal authority to
introduce legislation for abortion in Ireland
Nora Bennis, from Mothers Alliance Ireland, states that
Mervin Taylor, a former Labour Minister, in the Fine Gael led Rainbow Coalition
outlined the legal position in 1997 in a report to the United Nations five
years after the X case Judgement. The Irish Government made it quite clear that
abortion was still illegal in Ireland. Ireland's Combined Second and Third
Reports under the United Nations CEDAW, introduced by Mervin Taylor, Minister
for Equality and Law Reform, in February 1997, states quite clearly on page 116
that: “Abortion is prohibited in Ireland by the Offences Against the Person Act
1861.”
European Life Network’s Patrick Buckley states that this
very point was put to the people of Ireland in 2002 as part of the then
referendum, that sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861
should be repealed. The people in voting to reject the 2002 Referendum
therefore clearly voted to retain sections 58 and 59 of the Act.
Anthony Murphy, editor of Catholic Voice, says that once an
Act is decriminalised it will become accepted by society as normal and accepted
practise, thus the occurrence of it will grow. The Irish people have always
protected the most vulnerable and will never live in a society where killing is
acceptable, especially of the weakest, most vulnerable and innocent members of
society. "
Precious Life’s Bernadette Smyth says abortion is a criminal
offence and prohibited in both the North and South of Ireland by the Offences
Against the Person Act 1861.
Life, as the Papal Nuncio has made absolutely clear, is from
conception to natural death.
Ends:
