A well-known Donegal priest has said the abortion bill is merely a disguised plan by the Irish Government to introduce abortion on demand.
Fr. John Joe Duffy of Stranorlar said he has real fears about the Government’s proposals.
In a statement to Donegal Daily, Fr Duffy said he is dismayed by the plans by the Labour and Fine Gael Government on the issue which he claims are being enacted merely to stay in Government.
The following is a full text of his statement.
“I am gravely concerned about the governments proposals regarding their intention to legislate for abortion. Despite the assertions by government that the well being and welfare of the expectant mother is to the forefront and center of this legislation, I submit that their true intention is the liberalisation of the availability of abortion on demand in Ireland. By legislating on suicide threats as grounds for the termination of life as per the proposed legislation, does not at all safeguard the well being of the mother nor does it put her mental health well being to the forefront.
“The legislation intends to give the right to the expectant mother to seek a termination on the grounds that she feels suicidal and it be asserted by her presenting herself as suicidal in a hospital environment. Based on the heads of the proposed legislation published by the government, no criteria is set down where the psychiatric history is taken into consideration. Nor that continual assessment and counselling of the expectant mother may be put into place over a period of time. Basically the legislation is a very blunt instrument whereby the 2 psychiatrists and 1 obstetrician deal with the case the expectant mother presents to them at face value.If the well being of the mother was the sole determinant factor in this legislation, then help, assistance and guidance, medical or psychiatrist or both would be offered in the first instance and provided for in this legislation, but that is not the case. Abortion is never the solution to address the mental health of an expectant mother or suicidality, unfortunately in many cases only to increase suicidality. What the legislation taken at face value is supposedly hoping to prevent will unfortunately only greatly add a greater burden of suicidality on the woman in the fullness of time. What we now have is the scenario where psychiatrists whose medical responsibility is to help the mental health of individuals are now legalally responsible as per the legislation to sign off on the abortion of life unborn. The legislation is flawed because if the well being and mental health of the expectant mother were central to the government’s intentions, then they would do everything possible within the legislation to ensure termination would not occur. It is proven in various professional assessments, reports and studies that an abortion of a pregnancy greatly increases the strains and stresses leading to increased suicidality, suicide, and drug dependency.
“I fear the true motivation for this legislation was revealed in last Sunday’s newspapers by both Aodhan O’ Riordan and Ann Ferris, the Labour TDs, when they let slip that the true intention of this government is to ultimately have abortion on demand . I am dismayed that the pre-election promises and committments made by FG public representatives not to legislate for abortion has been sold out by them for the price of staying in government. FG are appeasing the true Labour agenda which is the direct and intentional killing of the unborn child on demand. I am asking public representatives regardless of political affiliations, regardless of religious beliefs to stand up for life, to stand up for the protection of the unborn, for the well being of the mother. This legislation is flawed from the very outset because it’s intentions were never for the well being of the mother or the protection of the life of the unborn. It’s intentions were solely the liberalisation of abortion on demand as stated once again by the former Taoiseach, Mr. John Bruton in Tuesdays papers where he said this was unconstitutional. He goes onto to say that he knows of no other area of law, where a threat of suicide is sufficient to make legal, what would otherwise be illegal. Legislating on the basis of the X case is bringing legal certanity to flawed legal judgement by the Supreme court rather than the legal clarity in which the Taoiseach Enda Kenny talks about. In essence what the govt is doing is using flawed legal interpretation and turning it into statute law under the constitution, and this is very wrong. The main party in this coalition government do not have the moral authority to vote in Dail Eireann for this legislation because they gave an electoral pledge that they would never do so. There fore Minister of State Dinny Mc Ginley, and Deputy Joe Mc Hugh, need to stand up and publicly account for their voting intentions regarding this proposed legislation. We the electorate must hold them to account.
“Let us a society not sleep walk our way into liberalisation of abortion in our times in our country, as a permanent solution to any problem regardless of what some politicians would hoodwink us into believing. Abortion solves nothing, it just ends life.
Fr John Joe Duffy,
Stranorlar,
Co. Donegal.