Imbalance slanted in favour of pro-choice witnesses remains a serious issue – Sherlock
The Pro Life Campaign has said today’s session at the Oireachtas Committee descended to a new level of farce when representatives of the Irish Family Planning Association were invited to address committee members as “independent experts”.
Commenting on the session, PLC spokesperson Cora Sherlock said:
“It’s ridiculous that the IFPA were given a platform by the Oireachtas to present as experts on women’s health given what came to light regarding counselling practices at IFPA centres in recent years. IFPA counsellors were found advising women to lie to their doctors and say they had a miscarriage if medical complications arose after an abortion, advice that the then master of a Dublin maternity hospital described as “life-endangering”. The IFPA also coached women on how to illegally import abortion pills to self-administer without medical supervision. These very serious breaches of care are on the public record and are the actions of a rogue agency, not the practice of an organisation delivering genuine care to women.
“Despite all that’s known about the IFPA, the committee still saw fit to invite them in as expert witnesses. It brings the work of this committee to a new level of farce.
“Even if the IFPA had never acted in such a reckless and irresponsible fashion, the organisation should never have been invited to address the committee as “independent experts”. The group receives funding from the largest abortion provider in the US, International Planned Parenthood Federation, and from New York abortion lobby group the Centre for Reproductive Rights, to name just two. The chairperson of the Oireachtas committee assured the public that no advocacy groups would be invited as witnesses but that undertaking didn’t even last a week.
She continued:
“Now that the vote not to retain the 8th Amendment has taken place, there is no point in pro-life groups attending the committee. As the committee clocks up yet another week of slanted testimony in favour of repeal from a long-standing pro-abortion campaigning organisation like the IFPA, its credibility is even more damaged. Thankfully the public are starting to see through the charade that’s going on.”
ENDS
