LAST YEAR, AN Irishwoman, who almost bled to death after taking the abortion pill, wrote that she had spoken out about her horrific experience because she didn’t want a young girl to ‘take these pills and end up dead in a pool of blood’.
“Sorry,” she added, “but it’s the reality of it.”
The then-Master of the Rotunda maternity hospital, Dr Sam Coulter-Smith, one of the country’s leading obstetricians, also spoke about the reality of taking abortion pills unsupervised. He cautioned that incorrect administration of the drug could lead to perforation of the uterus, and warned that this had caused women to die.
His warning is worth repeating: taking abortion pills that have been ordered off the internet, without medical supervision, can kill you.
Yet these stark warnings are being ignored by campaigners who are eager to use the online availability of these pills to push to have abortion-on-demand legalised in Ireland.
The safety of women, and, obviously, that of their unborn babies, is being recklessly and callously endangered by these actions.
All the bluster of publicity stunts like the abortion bus, or of yet another organisation linking vulnerable women to abortion pill providers, only serve to distract from the real issues at hand: that women with an unexpected pregnancy need improved support and services, and that abortion, whether it’s performed in a clinic or by taking a pill, ends the life of an unborn baby.
That a baby’s life is ended has been brought to public attention in the most stark and tragic manner possible by the recent case that came before the courts in Belfast where a woman had taken the abortion pill.
The woman’s housemate told the Belfast Telegraph that they had been hugely distressed at finding the body of a baby boy in the bin. “The baby had hands, feet, all its facial features, its little nose. He had fingers, little toes. Even now I just have a picture in my mind of it. I can’t get it out of my mind,” she said.
This evidence led to a huge reaction on social media, with many people expressing horror at the fate of the baby, and their surprise to learn that a baby would be fully formed at that age. We have become so accustomed to the de-humanising language of the abortion debate that it’s easy to ignore basic biology, and the scientific fact that a baby is fully formed at 8 weeks after conception.
The law should punish abortion providers, not women
It’s easy to ignore the other obvious truth in this increasingly dishonest debate: that abortion does not meet the needs of women. Killing babies because they are unexpected or unwanted has been a solution forced upon women since time began, yet abortion campaigners continue to uphold this medieval solution instead of demanding a better answer that would protect mother and baby.
Predictably, the Irish media tried to use the Belfast case to attack the 8th amendment and to demand a change in Ireland’s abortion laws. But in Britain, undergoing an abortion can also be a criminal offence, and can carry stiff penalties. Last year, a woman from Durham was jailed for 2 and a half years by Newcastle Crown Court for taking tablets she bought on the internet to abort her 32-week old unborn baby.
The Durham case was largely ignored by the media and by abortion campaigners because it didn’t suit their agenda. There were no angry articles in the Irish media demanding that Britain’s abortion laws be called to account.
Like every other pro-life person I know, I want the law to criminalise abortionists, not women. (It’s worth noting that pro-life volunteers provide counselling and practical support to thousands of women with a crisis pregnancy every year, both before and after birth. They work to make a better answer than abortion possible).
The falling abortion rate
Ensuring that abortion remains a crime protects women from an industry that profits from ending the lives of babies. That’s why I believe the gardaí should be doing more to investigate the fact that distributors seem to be importing abortion pills in bulk so that they can profit from the fear and panic of vulnerable women.
In 2014, for example, Customs seized 1,017 abortion pills, but the tablets were not ordered by more than one thousand individual women. Instead, they were seized in just 60 packages, obviously ordered by dealers who want to sell them on to make a quick buck from the distressed women who should be offered support and assistance, not a life-threatening abortion pill.
The good news is that the number of Irish women travelling for abortions has fallen significantly in the last decade: down by 45% since 2011. Ireland has a low abortion rate of 5%, in contrast to Britain where 1 in every 5 babies – 20% of all those conceived – have their lives ended in abortion.
A falling abortion rate should be welcomed by everyone. Instead of pushing abortion pills, perhaps campaigners might consider working towards a compassionate and progressive society where the needs of women are met and their babies are protected.
Niamh Uí Bhriain is a spokesperson for the Life Institute.
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