ABORTION BILL IS DANGEROUS, UNJUST AND IRRETRIEVABLY FLAWED

ABORTION BILL IS DANGEROUS,
UNJUST AND IRRETRIEVABLY FLAWED

PROTECTION OF LIFE DURING ABORTION BASED ON A
PREGNANCY BILL 2013 THREAT OF SUICIDE CANNOT
BE RESTRICTIVE
The Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013 is
dangerous, unjust and irretrievably flawed. Abortion on the basis of suicidal ideation can never be
restrictive. Psychiatrists would be put in an impossible
The brutal lesson from other countries which introduced situation where they cannot refuse abortion at any
laws like this – hoping they would be restrictive – is that stage, because there is no way of predicting whether
they inevitably led to wide-ranging abortion. The Bill the woman will carry out her threat.
introduced by the Government is sure to repeat these
mistakes. Under the proposed new law, for an abortion to be
approved on the basis of a threat of suicide it will
The Government’s repeated assurances that the Bill is require two psychiatrists and an obstetrician to sign off
somehow restrictive are meaningless. The only thing on it. In reality, however, it will be the two psychiatrists
that matters is what’s in the Bill, and what’s in the Bill is who make the final decision. If they are in agreement,
abortion on potentially very wide grounds. the obstetrician’s opinion will be redundant. We have
seen how the requirement to have the signatures of two
SECTION 9 OF THE BILL doctors in the UK has been widely abused, to the point
where they have an abortion on demand regime.
Section 9 of the Bill provides for abortion on the suicide There is nothing in the Bill to prevent psychiatrists who
ground in line with the Supreme Court judgment in the X view abortion as harmless from seeking like-minded
case. colleagues to affirm the certification for an abortion.
The result is that healthy pregnant women, who do
By allowing abortion for a threat of suicide, the not suffer from any mental illness, would have access
Government would be legislating for a ‘treatment’ that is to an abortion where they threaten to kill themselves
not evidence-based. and their case is handled by psychiatrists who do not
believe abortion has any adverse consequences or who
It is widely accepted that it is impossible to predict suicide believe abortion is a woman’s right.
accurately and that abortion exposes some women
to future mental health problems. Far from protecting "There are significant concerns in all areas of the
women’s lives, the Government would potentially be medical profession in relation to this Bill when it comes
putting women’s lives at risk, if it legislates on the basis of to suicidality. Our overriding concern relates to the lack
the X case ruling. of evidence to show that termination of pregnancy is
an appropriate treatment for women who are deemed
There is no other situation in our lives where a threat of to be at risk of suicide. As obstetricians we are
suicide makes legal what would otherwise be illegal. It expected to practice evidence-based interventions and
would be a monstrous injustice to allow this to happen first and foremost to do no harm".
where the consequences will be the killing of an innocent
unborn child. Dr Sam Coulter Smith, Master of the Rotunda Hospital,
at the Oireachtas Hearings on Abortion, Friday 17th May 2013

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

According to New Zealand’s Abortion Supervisory
Committee, the permissibility of abortion on the ground of
serious danger to mental health was very precisely defined
in New Zealand law, “but the wording has come to have a
de facto liberal interpretation.”

In California, the number of abortions skyrocketed once
abortion was permitted on the supposedly restrictive
ground that “the woman is dangerous to herself or to the
person or property of others or is in need of supervision or
restraint”.

Within three years, 98.2% of abortions (61,572) were on
this ground.

SECTIONS 10-14 OF THE BILL

The review panel cannot prevent abuses because it only
has a role when abortion has been refused.

There is no appeal on behalf of the life of the unborn
child. So, if anything, the review panel will mean that extra
abortions take place.

PRETENCE OF PROTECTION ABORTION LAW WILL RADICALLY
CHANGE OUR CULTURE
FOR UNBORN
Our laws exercise an important educative effect in society.
What the Bill really offers is not protection but just the Without abortion, Ireland is among the safest places in the
pretence of protection for the life of the unborn child. world for a woman to be pregnant. At the same time, our
Objectionable at every stage, the procedures envisaged legal culture prohibiting abortion has had a positive effect
in late pregnancy are grotesque and obscene. on our culture. Our abortion rates are a fraction of those in
For the baby at 22 or 23 weeks, already fully formed, Britain, taking our different population sizes into account.
needing only a week or two to reach viability and a More children with disabilities, like Down Syndrome, are
fair chance to reach birth and citizenship, the Bill, born in Ireland than in Britain because of our different
unbelievably, offers no protection against being legally attitudes to abortion.
killed.
If abortion is introduced, this culture will change. Many
For the baby on the cusp of viability from around unborn lives will be needlessly lost and many women will
24 weeks on, the Bill, again unbelievably, proposes suffer for years after their abortion decision. There will be a
a medically contraindicated and unnecessary early hardening of our culture.
induction that puts the baby at risk of serious harm,
such as brain damage, blindness or even death. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO
Despite the claim that the life of the baby is protected, BE THIS WAY
the horrible reality of the Bill is that where the woman
insists that it is the existence of the baby, and not just Ireland can find ways to provide the means of supplying
the pregnancy, that is the cause of her suicidality, her the necessary legal and regulatory clarity without
insistence trumps the baby’s right to life every time, legislating for the X case. For 21 years, we have not had
even though the procedure is not based on any medical abortion in Ireland precisely because we did not legislate
evidence whatsoever. In such a situation, under the Bill, for the X case. Once the principle has been conceded
abortion is permissible up to birth. that it is permissible to deliberately destroy an innocent
life, there is no going back. To defeat the Government’s
Even if the Bill were amended to include a time limit, proposal, pro-life supporters must continue to be insistent
the X case still stands and so the time limit could be but dignified and never lose heart in opposing legislation
bypassed and legally challenged. for abortion. Pro-life politicians must also take a stand.
Otherwise, this irredeemably flawed abortion Bill will
And by way of final insult, each of these horrors would become law in a matter of weeks.
take place despite the fact that there isn’t a shred of
evidence that abortion in the case of threatened suicide
brings any benefit to the woman.

All of this highlights the astonishing lack of
consideration for the unborn child by those in
government championing the proposal. It is shameful
beyond words that some politicians even have the
nerve to call the proposed legislation ‘pro-life’.

This briefing document only addresses sections 9-14 of
the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013 dealing
with abortion on the ground of threatened suicide. There
are many other flaws with the Bill.

104 Lower Baggot Street
Dublin 2, Ireland
01 6629275
[email protected]
www.prolifecampaign.ie

Pro Life Campaign - 18-06-13