21.04.2023 – News Release: Extreme proposals in abortion review the result of flawed research process, says Pro Life Campaign

21.04.2023 – News Release: Extreme proposals in abortion review the result of flawed research process, says Pro Life Campaign

“If legislative changes come before the Oireachtas, the Pro Life Campaign will immediately launch a significant campaign to oppose these sweeping changes” – Mulroy

Speaking following a report in the Irish Times that “sweeping changes” would be made to Ireland’s abortion law as part of the three-year review, Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Eilís Mulroy said:

“The changes highlighted in today’s reports would represent a complete departure from the basis on which people voted in the 2018 referendum. Although couched in academic language, the proposals are deeply extreme in nature and were driven by a fundamentally flawed process. The suggestion of ‘decriminalisation’ effectively makes the abortion law a toothless set of guidelines, meaning there may be no legal recourse to prevent an abortion from being performed shortly before birth.

“The review should have been an opportunity to objectively analyse the broad impact of the abortion law. Last year we saw the highest number of abortions on record: 8,500 abortions. For every seven babies born last year, one was aborted. In just four years, we’ve seen nearly 30,000 Irish abortions. This huge rise should prompt serious reflection on the lack of safeguards and alternative pathways offered by state agencies to women in unplanned pregnancies apart from just abortion. We know the HSE MyOptions service is unequipped to offer information to women on alternatives to abortion.

“It was apparent from the word go that the three-year review would be biased and flawed. Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly refused to meet any pro-life representatives, yet regularly met with pro-abortion campaigners. The credibility of the review was further undermined when he appointed a clique of academics, many with a conflict of interest due to their public history of pro-abortion campaigning, to head up the research strands of the review. Much of this research was profoundly flawed, as seen in the fact Catherine Conlon’s ‘UnPac’ report essentially recommended the removal of the required three-day waiting period yet failed to interview a single woman who availed of it and decided to have her baby. Only interviewing women who had an abortion was bound to produce an unrepresentative result. It ignored the experience of many of the women within the total of 3,951 who did not have an abortion after the three-day period for reflection elapsed (2019-21).

“If legislative changes come before the Oireachtas, the Pro Life Campaign will immediately launch a significant political campaign to oppose these sweeping changes. It is totally inappropriate for the government to introduce such extreme changes just five years after the contentious referendum was carried on the basis of guarantees and promises that there would be safeguards.”

ENDS