Abortion safeguards to be dismantled - Tóibín

Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has criticised the government for “reneging on promises made to the people to get the abortion referendum passed”.

“The number of abortions jumped a devastating 25% just the last year. The Minister for Health recently admitted that over 8,500 unborn children were aborted last year. That’s 8,500 individual living human beings had their lives ended by the state. It's a catastrophe for each and every one of these children. That figure is nearly triple the rate that it was in 2017, the year before the referendum," Deputy Tóibín said in a statement issued this week.

"In the four years that the law has been in place nearly 28,500 babies have been aborted. It’s the equivalent of 1,228 class rooms of children. This is equivalent to the population of Kilkenny City. Yet that’s not enough for many in the government who seek to deregulate the abortion system further. When FF and FG leaders campaigned for abortion to be introduced, they identified specific protections and safeguards, yet less than five years later, it looks like the government seek to dismantle what few protections and safeguards were included. The report we are told seeks massive reregulation with 10 legislative changes and 60 operational changes”.

“Reports are that the three day consideration time is to be deleted. The decision to end a life is of an extraordinary magnitude. Its an irreversible decision. The baby cannot be brought back to life after and abortion. The enormity of this decision should allow for some time to think things through. It is the human condition that we all make mistakes, none of us can say that we haven’t made mistakes, especially at a time of stress or crisis.

"We know that deliberation helps mothers to look at other positive options. According to the Health Service Executive, a total of 3,951 women did not return for a second abortion consultation after the three-day reflection period elapsed. Not all of these cases will have been because women changed their minds, but clearly thousands of these women proceed to have their babies. There are thousands of children alive in Ireland today thanks to the three-day waiting period. Did the reviews speak to any of these mothers who waited the three days and had their child. Did they speak to these children?

“Incredibly there is no information as of yet as to whether the review seeks to deal with the fact that mothers so far have suffered 133 adverse incidents in the abortion system. A response to a PQ that I submitted show that there has been an extremely high number of adverse incidents reported to the State Claims Agency in relation to the abortion act. We know of at least three children who were aborted under the fatal foetal abnormality section of the abortion act, who were fully healthy children. These were late term abortions on healthy babies and healthy mothers and yet no one is being held to account for them at all. Now campaigners want to change the law to allow late term abortion for a child with a none fatal anomality. In other words a child with a disability. The Master of the Rotunda has already stated that 95% of parents with unborn Down syndrome children choose abortion. What message of inclusion does this sent out that 95% of children with Downs Syndrome in certain hospitals are being aborted?

“Ninety per cent of doctors refuse to carry out an abortion. The vast majority of doctors want to save lives and not end lives. Yet it appears that this report is seeking to put pressure on doctors and nurses to carry out abortions by reducing the ability to conscientiously object. The Committee on the 8th Amendment heard testimony from witnesses that stated that 85% of abortions were for socio economic reasons, that mothers, because of the economic pressures that they were in, felt that they had no choice but to abort. Indeed every year, dozens of mothers are homeless and pregnant. This month the government voted against an amendment to extend the eviction ban to mothers who were pregnant. This is not compassion. These are in many ways austerity abortions.

"There is nothing at all it appears in this review that seeks to put economic supports in place to give mothers an actual choice to give birth and to be able to raise their children to their fill potential. This is not compassion," Deputy Tóibín concluded.