Chairperson should clarify which witnesses she believes were not “pro-female health”
The Pro Life Campaign has said that “Senator Catherine Noone appears to be coming up with a new excuse every day in an attempt to explain why the committee she chairs is so stacked in favour of abortion.”
The PLC was commenting on the Senator’s weekend remarks where she said the vast majority of witnesses were “pro-female health” and that “this pro-life and pro-choice polarising argument needs to become more nuanced in this debate.”
Senator Noone continued: “I don’t understand how you can call our country’s leading health professionals biased or question their credibility when they state their professional opinion. There has been a consistent attempt to undermine this process.”
Responding to her remarks, Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign said: “Senator Noone knows full well that her committee made no serious attempt to achieve balance. The facts speak for themselves on who was invited as witnesses and who was not. Ms Noone says the vast majority of witnesses were simply ‘pro-female health’. This implies she thinks some of the witnesses were not pro-women’s health. Would she care to name who they might be? Will she clarify that it’s not pro-life witnesses she is referring to?
Ms Sherlock said “the tragedy of how this committee has conducted itself cannot be explained away with one excuse after another. The facts are that 27 or 28 pro-repeal witnesses were invited to come before the committee and just 5 pro-life witnesses, 2 of whom were sent an invitation after the committee had already voted for abortion.
“When Senator Noone talks about inviting witnesses that were ‘pro-female health’, how come the committee never intentionally set aside any time to seriously look at all the peer reviewed evidence that clearly points to adverse after effects of abortion for women. Is Senator Noone suggesting the more than ten international pro-abortion groups and individuals her committee invited at taxpayers’ expense fit in with her definition of ‘leading health professionals’?
“Irrespective of what Senator Noone says, the tragedy remains that this committee will be remembered as one of the most skewed and incurious committees ever to convene in the houses of the Oireachtas.”
ENDS