Last week, of the ironically named “People” before Profit put a motion before Derry and Strabane Council which conflated the separate issues of marriage and decriminalising abortion. The motion was carried by seventeen votes to ten. There were many abstentions, presumably members either confused, or afraid of being called a choose-your-phobic, or denying the “choice” to end a human life. At the same council meeting, a motion was passed unanimously to prevent cruelty to animals.
Decriminalising abortion means the removal of all rights and protections in law from preborn humans.
Since then, in the parliament of Westminster, the decriminalisation of abortion has been imposed here in the north by politicians not one of whom was elected to represent us. Any six county MPs who were present voted against. Whatever your views on the question of abortion law, this is an assault on democracy. Little wonder we Irish, Britain’s first and last colony, don’t have much regard for the process.
Incredibly, erstwhile republicans lobbied in Westminster for such an outcome. New Sinn Féin’s leaders travelled, on three separate occasions, to ask that parliament legislate on this, despite claiming not to recognise the mother of parliament’s authority here.
The SDLP, anxious not to be out virtue-signalled went along too.
PBP, to be fair have at least been consistent on this. Their ideology is firmly based in their communist roots. The USSR was the first regime to offer abortion to the masses. PBP only put some people before some profit. The obscene returns of the multibillion-pound abortion industry, or the fact that many of the campaigns to decriminalise abortion are funded by the extreme right don’t seem to trouble them.
As an Irish Republican, I want self-determination for the people I represent. Many of us who witnessed the pain which the decades of struggle for national sovereignty caused our families and communities now wonder, watching these antics, what was it all about?
Despite the oft repeated mantra, abortion is not health care. Ireland, pre-January 2017 had one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, and Irish obstetricians were world- leaders in their field. The assertion that our pro-life laws here in the north have saved 100,000 of our peoples’ lives since the introduction of the 1968 act in Britain has been upheld in court.
Irish doctors repeatedly testified that they never were prevented from acting in the best interests of a mother by the constitution. But those other medics, some with financial interests in the abortion industry, won the hearts and minds of a compliant and shameless media.
A heart transplant has been successfully undertaken in a pregnant woman. Cancer chemotherapy is now routine. With regard to mental health issues, robust evidence exists to show that pregnancy is protective against mental health problems such as depression and that suicide and self-harm rates fall sharply. Conversely a study in Finland study published recently showed a six times higher rate of completed suicide in women who aborted their babies as compared to those who gave birth. In none of the medical literature is abortion provision cited as a treatment for mental illness. But ideologues don’t do science.
Sepsis is, after haemorrhage the commonest cause of maternal mortality worldwide. The mis-management of sepsis took the life of Ms Hallapinavar, and enquiries into her tragic death recommended a new maternity strategy to prevent further such failures. Since the law change in the south two women have died in Irish Maternity Hospitals, with nary a word, never mind candlelit vigils, and tear-jerking newspaper editorials. The funding to implement the recommended strategy to improve maternal health was cut by Simon Harris, to fund abortion provision. Again, the media largely were silent.
And what about the babies, those other members of the human family who are present in every pregnancy? I worked in perinatal intensive care in the Belfast Maternity Hospital, a job with little sleep, but one full of magic moments. These wee ones were born many well below the 28 weeks gestation which this bill will withdraw protection from. They undoubtedly felt pain, they fought us and hated us for annoying them with blood tests and ventilator tubes and machines. Yet to dismember them and take them piecemeal from their mother’s womb, without even pain relief, is now a choice in law, and approved by our local council. This is barbarism.
As a GP, I’ve helped hundreds of women through pregnancies, most celebrating the new life within, but some of in despair as to how they might cope. Even in the most desperate of cases, I’ve never had a woman come back and say I wish I’d aborted that child. And I’ve had some, not all, but many who’ve induced abortion and have suffered and regretted that decision for all of their lives. One young woman, mother of a toddler, tells me that every time she looks at her son, she remembers that he is her second child.
To decriminalise abortion leaves the unborn child, the place where we all began, without any
protection whatsoever. If these people have their way, every home, where children should be safe, can now become a back-street abortion facility, where lives are ended without medical supervision and help. Our hospitals, places of care and healing, will become places where the innocent and defenceless will be sucked thorough tubes, or taken piecemeal from the safety of our mother’s wombs. Those who don’t expire as expected will be left to die alone, and thrown out with the soiled bandages. No dignified burial, no memories, just denial of their human dignity because they were somebody’s “choice” rather than human infants, albeit small and undeveloped ones. Nott planned, privileged or perfect.
A few years ago, in Derry, some women, closely allied to PBP were offering illegal, prescription-only medication and credit facilities to vulnerable women, without license, insurance or medical cover, in the name of women’s “rights”. The media gave them extensive coverage. Last week outside the guildhall in Derry others, with whom PBP members freely associated, were distributing leaflets telling women who had problems with abortion pills and were seeking medical care to lie to their doctors.
These are the people who should be criminalised.
We know that if abortion is decriminalised in the north it will be largely Sinn Féin’s doing. As they did with the euphemistically named “welfare reform”, they get those bad Brits to do their dirty work, and then cry foul. Even when they had what passes for political power here, they delivered nothing of real worth for Derry-the medical school, (not the promised 9,000 new student places, but a start) an education system worthy of the name, infrastructure, jobs, justice for abuse survivors, and redress for decades of systemic neglect. Instead they give us culture wars that have little or no relevance to real people. We canvassed 7000 households in Ballyarnett, and none of SF’s red lines were mentioned on the doors. I speak Irish, and had useful conversations with some local wanes.
If the assembly is not reconvened by 21st October all protections for unborn babies up to 28 weeks gestation will be removed. O brave new Ireland.
I’ve spoken before about the role of men in story of human reproduction. I don’t blame them for choosing not to get involved in the abortion debate, such is the vitriol and abuse to which they will be exposed. Conversely, for the traffickers, the violent thugs and abusers, decriminalisation is a dream come true. It will do away with nasty doctors and social workers asking inconvenient questions.
Wee recap of some Key Stage 3 biology.
The mother’s womb, or uterus is a hollow muscular organ with an opening to the outside, which has no other physiological or practical function except as a place where human babies grow and develop till they are mature enough to survive on their own. Those who chant “get your rosaries off my ovaries” should know that the ovaries produce eggs only, which simply die if they are not fertilised. It’s called a period, and happens monthly to most healthy women.
However, if fertilised, the egg and sperm each contribute 50% of the genetic material which makes a new and individual human person. The baby is genetically distinct, a new and unique person who never existed before and who never will again.
The narrative which writes males out of the human story is pernicious nonsense. Fathers matter, and are 50% of who we are. I’m the spit and image of my father, and he was my guide and inspiration. I think about him every day.
The alarming rate of suicide and self-harming behaviour in young males may be related to this exclusion of them as co-creators of their children, and their relegation to essentially being sperm donors.
I am a Pro-life feminist of the left. We in Aontú, the republican party I represent are pro-life for all of life. There has to date been little class-based analysis of the complex issue of the right to life of children versus the advancement of women. What a sterile and narrow vision of progress is it, when women’s rights and welfare are pitted against the lives of her children. When women are forced to relinquish their maternity and deny their biology to progress their careers and sometimes to even survive in today’s world.
It is a fact that abortion disproportionately affects the poor, ethnic minorities, and those who have additional needs. Many women have their choice and bodily autonomy limited by government policies and systemic injustice which seem less important to political parties than their own promotion. Their exclusive preoccupation with the culture wars at the expense of making meaningful change for the majority is a cause of bewilderment to many.
Organisations such as Amnesty, which were once were progressive voices for the oppressed are now the paid puppets of the most right-wing and anti-people forces on the planet. Money movers, venture capitalists, currency speculators, who have impoverished tens of thousands across the planet now impose their world view, because money talks.
Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes International are for-profit global businesses making
billions here and in the developing world. Globally, they have little interest in the things which hav been repeatedly proven to make a real difference to women’s health, things such as such as education, maternal nutrition, clean birthing rooms, antibiotic provision, the treatment of sepsis, or blood transfusion facilities and so on. They don’t divert their obscene profits to build roads and infrastructure which would mean women in obstructed labour don’t have to be transported in a wheelbarrow over dirt tracks to access care.
They offer abortion and contraception as liberty, and self-righteously carry the white man’s burden into this new millennium. Thankfully however, women in the developing world are now speaking out to reject this new imperialism.
Of course, worldwide, the most lethal of the fatal foetal abnormalities is to be female. There are 400m of us at a conservative estimate missing across the globe. Having Two X chromosomes merits a death sentence, and this is legal, totally, if abortion is decriminalised.
The parties who promulgate this culture of death should hang their heads in shame.
Have we no better vision to offer women, or society?
However, the tide is turning, as people across the planet wake up and realise that the future can be better. This is the human rights issue of our generation. All lives matter, not just the planned, he privileged and the perfect.
Clr. Anne Mc Closkey. MB. Aontú, Derry and Strabane District Council. |
Anne, you lost the argument in last year's referendum in the Republic and you are losing it in the North. Just get over it. Remember the old Civil Rights slogan; British Rights for British citizens! Let us in the spirit of last year's victory for the bodily sovereignty of Irish women; for real Irish freedom and self-determination from the patriarchy also call for Irish Rights for Irish Citizens! Ta ra.
ReplyDeletewhy is Republicanism going nowhere in Ireland? see above.
DeleteBarry Gilheany
DeleteYou won a referendum. Not so sure about you winning the debate.
pro-abortion prostitute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un23nZRXVHg
pro-life doctor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHJmVYAS06U
Aontu? Yet another Republican Party? FFS..
ReplyDeleteReligious fanatics masquerading as medical practioners trying to force people into having children they dont want is sedistic barbarism.
ReplyDeleteI suspect you are right too Christy.
DeleteChristy - it usually is religious fanatics but I recall reading Anne before where she stated she had no religious reason for taking up her position. There are people opposed to abortion who are not religious fruitcakes and who took up the same sex marriage cause, divorce and other things.
DeleteHere are some religious fanatics for you;
Deletehttps://twitter.com/BasedPoland/status/1156676423589027841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1156676423589027841&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2F2%2Ftwitter.min.html%231156676423589027841
I'd say she better qualified than you Christy to practice medicine but hey ho. Besides anyone that has seen the remnants of abortion and still doesn't think it's 'barbaric' has seriously got issues ach hey ho aris!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what she thinks a miscarriage is.
Deleteshe sounds like a witch doctor.
DeleteMent to say -the Catholic church had no problem trying to coerce women to have abortions when Bishops knocked them up.
DeleteIt is barbaric to force women to resort to the back street abortionist or to the knitting needle or to dump unwanted children in orphanages which have been the universal consequences of criminalisng abortion.
ReplyDelete'dump unwanted children in orphanages'? Your rulers in westmonster normally 'want' them but we'll be waiting a long time for you and your ilk to highlight that situation. It's best to pick on the weakest isn't it? No surprise there btw.
DeleteAsk any adult who was in an orphanage what is more barbaric - his orphanage experience or an abortion.
DeleteA pro life Republican Party? No irony there.....
ReplyDeleteThose who are anti abortion are in fact anti woman who obviously think women's only purpose is to reproduce.
Religious cults need their membership to reproduce to maintain a generaltional source of sheep. Mulsim clerics openly discuss outbreeding 'non-believers' so they can conquere the world -why do you think they have tons of kids just like Irish women used to be forced to do.
DeleteTerry, with all due respect but don't talk _..............don't be inane. I don't see any feminazis or indeed any other muppets pulling up trees to truly improve the hand women are dealt in this society.
DeleteWolfe Tone
ReplyDeleteShe is dressing religious fanatism up as medical expertise ... destroyed human life is not pretty -that's effect that forced child birth can have on more than one individual -
You should rejoice at the prospect of an extra mouth at gods table -you should take comfort in knowing that at least it may be fed in the next life when it might not be in this life --just look at gods marketing strategy during famines -the children alway starve first no matter the best efforts of the parents.
Steve R, I am sure a miscarriage is quite sad for the parents, but never mind that and make your point?
ReplyDeleteI think his point was that the "remnants" (as you put it) of an abortion are indisinguishable from a miscarriage -babarism may have no part in either. Neither may be a pleasant sight anymore than other excretments from the human body are.
DeleteMany cissexist tropes disguised as progressive health concerns disguised as barbarism in these comments.
ReplyDeleteMen have uteruses that carry pregnancies too, gender fluidity teaches us so. Even those (nominally male) without the biological ability to give birth should have access to maternity and gynaecological services if they self identify as female.
Indeed, this is the ‘elephant in the room’ of the whole topic. Until it is addressed, we cannot truly claim to be free from the normative effect on self perception imposed on us by Western patriarchal biological bigotry.
Wolfe Tone
ReplyDeleteMy reference to orphanages concerns what happened in Romania unxer Ceacescu where his ban on abortion and contraception to coerce women to have four children led to thousands of unswanted children being dumped in orphanges where they were subject to hideous neglect as you may remember.
AM
ReplyDeleteI'd question Anne's sincerity withregard to her arguments not religious but purely humanitarian or scientific then emotive words like barabarism would not feature -if her argument was purely medical then she would understand that a fetus is not a human life from inception --if her arguments were based purely on humanitarian concerns then she would know the humanitarian importance of abortion.
She probably thinks her argument would be more persuasive if she tried to seperate it from her religious beliefs.
Christy - there are some people who are atheists that are opposed to abortion and see it the way Anne does. I don't know if she is atheist but she did say she didn't come at it from a religious perspective. I am willing to listen to any argument against abortion other than a religious one. I too have the problem in general with accepting as non religious the view that a zygote can be human in the sense that a toddler can. I think that contributed significantly to the huge defeat the anti-choice/pro-life lobby sustained last time around. It is hard to convince people, including religious people, that the bishop once he rapes you and impregnates you, can then insist on you being denied the morning after pill and that you must carry to full term and deliver.
ReplyDeleteI tend not to advocate abortion, just feel it is none of my business if you choose to have one and that you rather than me have the right to decide. If my daughter gets pregnant and decides to terminate, it is her choice, not mine, not yours, not Anne's.
In the interests of understanding we hope to run a piece soon from an atheist opposed to abortion.
AM
ReplyDeleteMy scepticism is derived from her lack of humanitarian regard for circumstances where abortion might be necessary.
I dont advocate for abortion either -if somebody finds that that is the only option for them then that is their business. But I am aware of what shit they can get from medical practioners like Anne -and its irrelevant if her hostility is secular or religious. We know that Bishop Sean Casey advocated for abortion after getting clearance from Rome.
Christy – perhaps the problem is the definition of humanitarianism – there is none that can be agreed on and hence the polarisation of the issue.
ReplyDeleteI think those opposed to abortion in all circumstances are displaying a total disregard for humanitarian issues.
Many people who support abortion measures are opposed to say Russian torture because they believe it barbaric. I am sure there are people who support Russian torture but not abortion on the grounds that abortion is barbaric. It is a logic I find warped.
Society does not agree that the practice is barbaric. A minority in society think it is. Who then is to decide? In my view the majority.
I agree that because religion has become such ridiculous grounds on which to advocate public policy, that it is often disguised in the language of the secular. I find nothing in Anne’s argument to show it is the case with her.
You are right – it ultimately matters not whether the opposition is secular or religious, other than that I would be more than willing to listen to a secular argument against abortion, whereas I would never listen to a religious argument against it (or for it). And there are people of faith who do believe in the right to abortion.
Bishop Casey was a child molester in addition to whatever else he was and anything he might have advocated was blown out his jacksie. Reminds me of the old witticism that if men could get pregnant abortion would be a sacrament.
Doctors should no more be able to express a private admonition against abortion than they would against the soccer team you support. None of their business. They are there to provide a service.
I don’t know what my own doctor’s position on it is – very Christian but the best doctor I ever had. I hope I don’t get pregnant!!
A woman wants to make the choice, she should be free to do so regardless of what I think.
AM
ReplyDeleteAnne is a medical practioner -her article is written as a self-righteous attack on other political parties and she gets teary eyed reminiscing about the magical moment a baby is born in the maternity hospital... I am sure there are women who have abortions who would wish the magical moment Anne is referring to was their life but its not. Behind many (not all)abortions is likely a life of hardship and sacrifice. Anne does not give these women a second thought in her rantings -other than we can assume that she may call them barbaric killers. She is not reasoning with the reader how by allowing abortion it will be abused as a means of birth control -which is a valid concern of many people -non-religious included. Instead she is just preching a blanket rejection of abortion and taking pot shots at her political opponents.
Christy - because I don't see her coming at it from a religious perspective, I don't think it makes her any more right. I think her position is wrong. At some point Northern society will have abortion legalised, much like down here. There will be cross community support for it and against it: the opposition coming in the main from the right in both communities.
ReplyDeleteAbortion is overwhelmingly the killing of unwanted children. When prochoice can admit to the obvious then we can begin to have a rational conversation.
ReplyDeleteHowever, like all great injustices, the truth will eventually out.
What's miscarriage then?
DeleteI'm with Christy on this one, and a women's body is her own fucking business.
Delete