‘Lynch mob’: abortion on demand in Ireland

DUBLIN, Ireland, December 15, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The Irish government’s advisory committee on the upcoming abortion referendum has voted for abortion.

On December 13, the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment voted to recommend abortion on demand up to 12 weeks and until birth on undefined health grounds.

Ireland’s Pro Life Campaign said the Committee’s decision was “a total betrayal of women and their unborn babies and represents a tragic shift backwards for society rather than a step forward. Anyone who tries to suggest that today’s vote is not for abortion on demand is telling a lie.”

In protest of the decision, the three pro-life members of the Committee have quit.

The Irish Examiner reported that Rónán Mullen, Mattie McGrath, and Peter Fitzpatrick issued a joint statement saying why they will not sign the Committee’s recommendations:

“As members of the committee, we have attempted at all times to seek a fair and thorough analysis of issues pertaining to the Citizens’ Assembly report and recommendations on the Eighth Amendment,” they said. “The systemic imbalance in the functioning of the committee precluded any fair assessment of the issues. An unacceptably flawed process has led inevitably to cruel and unjust recommendations.

“We will not associate ourselves with any report basing itself on such an unacceptably discriminatory and exclusivist view of human rights and human dignity as these votes represent.”

Abortion is illegal in Ireland and the lives of unborn babies are protected by the Irish Constitution.

Cora Sherlock of the Pro-Life Campaign said the “decision to opt for a time limit of 12 weeks on request was plucked from thin air. … Also, the vote in favor of abortion on physical and mental health grounds is even more radical than abortion laws in other countries like England, where one in five pregnancies now ends in abortion.”

Ireland’s Life Institute described the Oireachtas Committee, “with a few honorable exceptions,” as a “lynch mob who have deliberately ignored the humanity of the preborn child and the full evidence about abortion.”

It vowed to ensure that the “extreme and cruel recommendations” of the Committee are rejected by the people of Ireland.

Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute said the “Committee was rigged to push abortion from the beginning, and acted like a lynch mob in refusing the preborn child any trial, any voice, or any fair representation before passing a death sentence on a helpless and vulnerable victim.”

“With the exception of three representatives, this Committee showed no interest in hearing what abortion meant for the baby, or in asking any hard questions of the stream of pro-abortion witnesses handpicked to give evidence supporting abortion, including several abortionists,” she said.

“The baby, who is recognized as a human being under our Constitution, was barely mentioned during the hearings, and now this rigged Committee is proposing that preborn children can be put to death for any reason whatsoever, exactly the kind of cruel, unreasoned behavior you would expect from a lynch mob," Uí Bhriain said.

Cora Sherlock takes comfort from the fact that the December 13 vote does not actually change Ireland’s pro-life Constitution.

“Thankfully, they won’t have the final say on the Eighth Amendment. The (Irish) electorate will have that responsibility, and I am confident that they will vote to keep it.”

Nevertheless, she is disgusted by the Committee’s willingness to recommend abortion when they know the grisly realities.

“For anyone who doubts what (the) vote represents,” she continued, “I would encourage them to look at the evidence of abortionist Dr. Peter Thomas to the committee where he let the mask slip and described in graphic detail how the baby is first paralyzed by the abortionist, who then injects poison into the baby’s heart to stop it beating. This is what some of our politicians view as progress.”

Britain’s biggest abortion business, the British Pregnancy Advisory Committee, also gave evidence to the Committee. At least two pro-life experts invited to testify before the committee refused to appear, believing the Committee was a “kangaroo court” deeply biased in favor of abortion.

Both the Pro Life Campaign and the Life Institute are adamant that Irish pro-lifers are fully united in their fight to preserve the pro-life Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution.

STORY FROM LIFESITENEWS