24.04.2011 Pro Life Campaign makes submission to United Nations Human Rights Council

24th April 2011 

Pro Life Campaign makes submission to UN Human Rights Council and challenges Your Rights Right Now submission

The Pro Life Campaign has a made a submission to the UN Human Rights Council, which in October of this year is due to examine Ireland’s record on human rights as part of its Universal Periodic Review.

Among other things, the PLC calls on the UN group to recognise abortion as a violation of human rights and “to acknowledge Ireland’s outstanding record of care in protecting the lives of women during pregnancy while at the same time affording legal protection to unborn babies.”

The submission takes issue with the claims of pro-choice groups and points out that the recent European Court of Human Rights’ decision in A, B and C v. Ireland “does not require Ireland to introduce legislation authorising abortion.”

The Pro Life Campaign cites the fact that “the judges in the X case heard no medical evidence” and that “any revisiting of the X decision would need to take on board the evidence from new studies that abortion involves significant risks for some women.” 

Responding to the recently published “Your Rights. Right Now” submission to the United Nations from a coalition of non-governmental organisations, calling for abortion to be made available in Ireland, Dr Ruth Cullen of the Pro Life campaign said:

"The Your Rights. Right Now report regards abortion as a human right. It’s an incredibly strange and narrow definition of human rights to deny the humanity of the unborn child throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy. How can genuine human rights be protected if we ignore the most basic right of all, namely the right to life?

The pro-choice movement is very vocal in pushing abortion legislation but shy away when confronted with the latest peer reviewed evidence showing the negative effects of abortion for women and the fact that Ireland, without abortion, is renowned for being a world leader in terms of safety for pregnant women. 

Pro-choice groups are doing their best to create the impression that Ireland is obliged to legislate for abortion following the recent European court ruling on abortion. This is simply not true. The court told Ireland to address the issue but it didn’t instruct the Government to legislate for abortion. The judgement fully respects the right of the Irish people to determine how the lives of unborn children should be protected.

You can read the Pro Life Campaign submission in full here