The Pro Life Campaign has said that today’s comments on abortion by the UN Committee dealing with the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) show a completely dismissive attitude towards the Irish people.
Sinead Slattery was speaking from Geneva, where the CEDAW Committee asked what were the Government’s plans to hold a referendum on the Eighth Amendment, regardless of whether the Citizens’ Assembly recommended this or not.
She said:
“It is unacceptable for the CEDAW Committee to act as if it can ignore the Irish debate and look for confirmation from the Government that a referendum will be held on the Eighth Amendment. Its comments today are undermining of Irish democracy and completely disregard the fact that a majority of the Irish people voted to acknowledge the right to life of unborn children in our Constitution. Any attempt to remove that right would discriminate against these babies, and place them in the position of second class citizens.
“Today’s comments from CEDAW will be particularly hurtful to the families of the tens of thousands of people who are alive today thanks to the Eighth Amendment, and to all those family members of people with disabilities who say that their children are protected by Irish law in a way that they are not in countries like England, where abortion is allowed up to birth if a baby is diagnosed with any kind of disability.”
She concluded:
“This is not the first time that a UN Committee has shown itself to be biased on abortion, even going so far as to insist on knowing what steps the Government will take to hold a referendum that would take away a human right. It is regrettable that the CEDAW Committee presents itself as a group aiming to eliminate discrimination, when abortion itself is the ultimate discrimination against the most vulnerable members of society.”
ENDS
