The following article is taken from The Hibernian. (Click Here)
There is in place a grave attempt to liberalize the law on abortion in the Six Counties.
Draft Guidelines on the Termination of Pregnancy in Northern Ireland, which are yet to be implemented by the Department of Health, will have the effect of making the North more abortion friendly than Britain and many other countries. The guidelines were put together as a result of a case brought by the Family Planning Association (fpa(NI)) who insisted that the law was “unclear” and that the Department had a duty to “clarify” the law on abortion.
The Department having defended the action in court, now however seem to have embraced with gusto the opportunity of expanding abortion practice that the introduction of guidelines offer. Initially the Department, acting under the British Labour Minister wanted to have the guidelines dealt with before the new Assembly was in situ. However the confidential consultation was made public by Pro Life groups like Precious Life. Eventually the Department accepted that the final verdict on the guidelines would have to be put back until the new Assembly Minister for Health, Michael McGimpsey, was in post.
The supporters of the guidelines, the pro abortion lobby, keep stating that the Guidelines are not going to change the law and thereby refute claims by Precious Life that these guidelines will effectively mean abortion on demand in the Six Counties. However you do not have to change the law to liberalise the interpretation of the law and the way in which certain practices are undertaken, in this case abortions.
The Legal Position in the Six Counties.
The law surrounding abortion is simply that abortion is criminal offence in Northern Ireland, called either Child Destruction or Illegal Abortion, which caries the penalty of life imprisonment. It is worth stating the one defence to the above crimes; The accused will not be guilty if “..it is proved that the act which caused the death of the child was not done in good faith for the purpose only of preserving the life of the mother.”
This seems straightforward and is indeed the present position. However a case came before the English courts called R v Bourne 1938 in which a judge stated that the defence of “preserving the life of the mother” in the Criminal Justice Act could be extended to mean “health or mental state” of the mother introduced the first seeds of doubt surrounding the law. Ever since this case, which incidentally has never been tested in a higher court and could be overturned, the pro abortionists have been pressing to widen the defence to abortion more and more.
Recently the concept has arisen that if a woman says she is suicidal because she is pregnant then a doctor who aborts her baby may be covered by the defence. It is doubtful that the legislators in 1861 had this in mind when they drafted the defence especially considering suicide was illegal until 1961.
Many lawyers think that Bourne is a weak judgement based on a misunderstanding by the judge of the real meaning of the defence. Certainly we should not be assuming, as the liberals would have us think, that the position set out by Bourne is set in stone. Quite the opposite, it is very vulnerable and a test case against an abortionist here could signal the end to all abortion practice in the Six Counties.
Making a sows ear out of a silk purse
As can be seen from a look at the law there is a very strict legal position in the Six Counties. Indeed it’s a position we could be very pleased with if it were not for the constant attempts by the Pro Abortionists assisted by the media to twist the facts and try to portray a backward confused society. The Liberals are indeed ashamed of the Catholic ethos which pervades this Island. Having failed to get the British Abortion Act in through the Stormont Assembly in 2000 and having no chance of changing the hearts and minds of the pro life majority, the Pro Abortionists pursued a different method, which had been ongoing for some time, to achieve their ends.
A strategy described by feminist academics sought to make use of the courts to tease out the appropriate decisions from the judges. Whatever those decisions were the Pro Abortionists would pick the bits which suited them and ignore the “bad bits”.
Ruth Fletcher from the University of Keele, Department of Law writes about the Northern Ireland Family Planning case in the Feminist Legal Studies Journal 2005. In the summary of her work she states:
“ ……. pro-choice strategic litigation needs to positively and generally assert women’s reproductive rights at the same time as it seeks to accommodate the needs of the most vulnerable.”
In our own Universities the pro abortionist movement is hard at work. Dr Eileen Fegan and Rachel Rebouche of the Law School, Queen’s University Belfast state in the commentary of a conference held at Queens in 2001 on Abortion Law in Ireland:
“We will not suggest practical solutions but pose questions in the hope of teasing out a more cohesive pro-choice strategy. We will focus first on the implications of the current fpaNI challenge and then consider the issues and dialogue regarding reproductive health care …..”
“The decision to challenge Northern Ireland abortion law through the courts, beginning earlier this year, mirrors the successful use of legal strategies (litigation) in other jurisdictions. In USA and Canada prohibitive abortion laws were struck down through contesting their application in specific cases.”
“It is also important to recognise that the fpaNI challenge implicitly forces the courts to clarify when terminations actually are legal in Northern Ireland – and where might they look for guidance but to the 1967 Act? It therefore has the potential to usher in or further the case for extension of Act to Northern Ireland, although this is not its specific aim”.
The truth about what to expect if the Draft Guidelines are put in place
As we can see there is a concerted effort and a plan afoot to attack our pro life country. This will have ramifications for the whole of Ireland. Once a country accepts an ethos like abortion it swiftly starts to move downhill in all its morality. After all if you are capable of killing a child what can you not do? Look at Catholic Spain for an example of how this has happened, watch Portugal and Mexico for a similar increase in moral horror.
As an example, by no means exhaustive, of the depths these proposed guidelines on abortion plummet there is provision that underage girls may be forced to have an abortion against their will: “….. the circumstances in which it may be appropriate to apply to the court to over-ride the refusal of consent by a young person. ……..”(section 2.13 of Guidelines) There is no legal authority for forced abortion in this country. Clearly the guidelines seem to be seeking to introduce this practice. Because this section specifically states that their will is “over ridden” then it is clear they have made a deliberate decision NOT to abort their child. This provision also extends by implication to mentally incapacitated women.
The following is an example of what might occur. A 17 year old girl in care is pregnant . She does not want an abortion. It is decided that she should have and abortion for health/mental reasons. She is in late pregnancy. These guidelines suggest that her refusal of consent may be over ridden. The guidelines also imply that the courts may be applied to for this. (The inverse of the recent D case in Dublin)
What country could hold its head up in the face of such barbarity?
The proponents of these guidelines may suggest that this provision is only meant for mentally incapacitated girls in extreme circumstances. But this is NOT what the guidelines say. Further, any forced abortion is illegal, so why are the guidelines suggesting this practice?
People may think that late term abortion is not possible. Yet there is nothing to limit abortions to below a certain term as such limitations only exist in the British Abortion Act. (24 weeks). In the appendix of the proposed guidelines there is a requirement that a doctor should be able to perform an abortion in each trimester. It is anticipated that the pro abortion lobby will seize upon this anomaly to bring in the British Abortion Act as a “kinder”
option.
Welcome to Ireland: Abortion HQ
The guidelines will mean that we have the potential, particularly by exaggerating the suicide aspect, to become the most liberal aborters in the UK and Ireland. The liberal press are already heralding the fact that all Irish women will soon be able to travel to Belfast instead of England. In fact English women will be travelling here also. Supporters of the guidelines will say this is scaremongering. However a scandal has been uncovered in England whereby English doctors have been referring women to Spain for late term abortions. If they will go to Spain they will surely come here.
An example would be an English woman carrying a healthy child decides in late pregnancy that she does not want her baby. She cannot abort in England as abortion to full term extends only to foetal abnormality. She hears that if she is suicidal at the prospect of giving birth she may have an abortion to full term in Northern Ireland. She gets a plane to Belfast.
No publicity is good publicity when it comes to abortion.
Put boldly, the whole point of the proposed guidelines is to “advertise” the exception to the criminal law against abortion and press the concept that the threat of suicide will be, as a matter of course, included in the grounds for relying on the defence.
The reason this is not already happening is because people aren’t being briefed in this “get out clause.” Also as the situation stands a doctor or nurse can act according to their own professional judgement and conscience. There is nothing requiring them to refer or commit abortions at the moment. Under the proposed guidelines medical staff are seriously threatened if they refuse to go along with the recommendations regarding abortions. Doctors and midwives, the majority of whom are pro life, fear they will be vilified if they refuse to abide by the guidelines. All staff are required to channel women requiring abortions in the “right” direction.
The effect on ordinary women of these Guidelines.
Because of the huge onus put on doctors to accept the abortion culture in these guidelines many good doctors will be forced out of practice. Many, as in England, will not go into the field of Gynaecology and Obstetrics. Ordinary women will have to run the gauntlet of doctors and nurses who think their baby is little more than a blob of cells. They may even have been committing abortions hours before treating them or delivering their children.
Ordinary women will be inundated with the pro abortion philosophy. They will be encouraged to test and scan their pregnancies more and more. They will be asked if they wish to consider abortion. An idea which would be foul to most women. They will feel let down and vulnerable. They will feel that they have no power over the situation and that no one cares for their child. There will be an environment of fear and mistrust. Nurses and midwives will also leave the profession due to these changes and the work load expected of those who stay on. One only needs to look at the maternity services in England to see where a culture of death leaves pregnant women and their babies.
The Future: How to change the law after all
The supporters of these guidelines will deny the extremes and fluff over the gross legal misrepresentations. They will try to pretend that a few changes are all that are required to deal with the shortfalls arising from the consultation process.
When the guidelines are in place the feminist lobby and the abortion doctors will finally admit the examples given above as being problematic.
They will then suggest that the introduction of the British Abortion Act will be the answer, and how could we refuse, they will say, do we really want to continue with full term abortions etc…?
The reason they will still want the Abortion Act is because it will set in statute the right to abortions. Currently, under these guidelines, they will be relying on a grossly over exaggerated common law defence to the crimes of abortion. They know that if there is a successful prosecution they could see the Bourne Case overturned and the Six Counties would be returned to a place where abortion is literally non existent.
What to do. Standing behind Saint Michael
Pray the Rosary. Our most powerful weapon and no doubt that which has kept many Irish babies safe for generations. Contact your local politicians and voice your objections to these guidelines. Don’t be fobbed off, they may not yet understand how terrible they are. 50,000 people have already signed a petition presented to the Department of Health by Precious Life, contact Precious Life if you want to help. Write to your papers, phone radio stations. Make sure that Mother Ireland is not left weeping for her children and that we did nothing but stand and watch. These babies will be your children and your children’s children, may you live to see them, as the old Catholic Marriage Rite goes, but also, may they live to see you.
Ellen ODonnell (The author is a Barrister.)