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THIS WEEK THE issue of abortion has taken centre stage in public debate following the death of Savita Halappanavar at a Galway University Hospital.
The full circumstances of the 31-year-old dentist’s death following a miscarriage are not clear at this point and the matter is the subject of two investigations. But there is little doubt that the issue of abortion and the Supreme Court’s ruling in the X Case are hot topics once again.
Briefly, the 1992 Supreme Court judgement in the X Case gives women the right to access abortion when their lives are in danger, including from the risk of suicide. In 2010, the European Court of Human Rights said there is a notable gap in the theory and practical implementation of the right to a lawful abortion in Ireland because of the lack of corresponding legislation.
Two months ago, TheJournal.ie began contacting all 226 members of the Oireachtas – 166 TDs and 60 Senators – to find out where they stood on the issue of legislating for the X Case.
We asked the following question: How would you vote if offered a ‘conscience vote’ on legislating for abortion as provided for in the X Case – i.e. where it was deemed that the life of the mother was at risk, including through the risk of suicide?
Of the 226 Oireachtas members we asked, 45 responded to us. Of them 23 said either they did not want to say or that they were waiting for the report of the expert group on abortion before making their decision.
Eighteen Oireachtas members said they would vote Yes to legislation, and four said they would vote No.
Obviously this is not representative of the membership of the upper and lower houses and having failed to get a response from most TDs and Senators this week we went to the parties themselves and a selection of independents to ask where they stood.
We asked them this:
Is your party in favour of putting the ruling in the Supreme Court ‘X Case’ on a legislative footing?
- If yes, why?
- If no, why?
Here is what they told us:
In response to our questionnaire the Fine Gael party sent this statement:
Fine Gael will not pre-empt the recommendations of the Expert Group, which has only this week delivered its report to the Minister for Health. The Minister and his Department will now reflect on the recommendations of the Expert Group. The matter will come before Government in due course.
In response to our questionnaire the Labour party sent this statement:
We believe that the Supreme Court ruling on the X case needs to be tackled.Under the Programme for Government, we promised to establish an expert group to examine these issues and to make recommendations to Government on how this matter should be properly addressed. Those recommendations may include legislation of some sort, regulation of some sort or some combination thereof. That Group has completed its report and it will be considered by the Cabinet very shortly.
We must deal with the issue and bring legal clarity to it.
In response to your questionnaire, Fianna Fáil sent this:
Fianna Fáil believes it is prudent to await the publication of the Expert Group Report on the European Court of Human Rights judgements on the A B C cases before making any commitment about how best to respond to legislating for the Medical Council Guidelines.This response will require the advice of the group which was made up of medical, legal and ethical experts.
This is a complex legal and constitutional issue and needs a considered response.
Obviously Fianna Fáil extends its deep sympathies to the Halappanavar family on the sudden and tragic death of Savita and we believe that there should be a full and independent inquiry into her death.
Is your party in favour of putting the ruling in the Supreme Court ‘X Case’ on a legislative footing?
Yes.
If yes, why?
Sinn Fein believes that all possible means of education and support services should be put in place, so that the difficult choice to terminate a pregnancy can be avoided by as many women as possible.
However in the case of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman’s life and mental health is at risk or in grave danger Sinn Fein accepts that the final decision rests with the woman.
It is time for legislation to be finally put in law to protect the rights of women as decided by the Supreme Court in 1992.
THE SOCIALIST PARTY
In response to our questionnaire the Socialist Party sent this statement:
The Socialist Party supports legislation that will give effect to the Supreme Court ruling on X.However we go further and support comprehensive, free, safe and legal abortion rights for women in Ireland, North and South. Whatever about an individual’s view on abortion we believe in the final analysis that a woman who chooses to terminate her pregnancy will take whatever means at her disposal to carry that decision out. The only thing the law can do is try frustrate that choice by placing financial and geographical obstacles in the way which is the situation in Ireland.
That said we support genuine choice in the sense that we believe that austerity and poor childcare facilities that pre-dated the economic crisis place huge challenges on people raising children. Therefore the fight against austerity is intimately linked with a consistent pro-choice position.
The People Before Profit/United Left Alliance TD Joan Collins sent this response to our questionnaire:
I am in favour of legislating for X. Simply because what we warned would happen back in April when we tried to introduce legislation on this matter has now happened. We have seen the needless and tragic loss of live because politicians in this country for too long have been spineless when it comes to legislating for something that should have been done twenty years ago after the X case.
The independent TD for Kildare North sent this response to our questionnaire:
Are you in favour of putting the ruling in the Supreme Court ‘X Case’ on a legislative footing?
Yes, I absolutely am in favour of putting the ruling in the Supreme Court ‘X case’ on a legislative footing.
If yes, why?
While it is appalling to even consider the fact that a tragedy like this was allowed to happen in the first place, there can be no argument with Savita’s husband; Praveen that what happened to Savita Halappanavar can never be allowed to happen in this country again. Earlier this year I supported the Bill which could have prevented this tragedy from occurring but unfortunately that Bill was defeated by Government. While action now is too little too late for Savita and her husband Praveen, it is not too late to save other women from this horrific experience. The equal right to life of both the mother and the unborn child must be acknowledged. Immediate action is required.
In response to our questionnaire, the independent TD for Wicklow sent this response:
I am conscious that there are very strongly held positions on either side of this divide. However, I am in favour of legislation for the X-case. I voted for a private members bill urging the government to legislate for the X-case in April of this year – that’s 20 years since the Supreme Court ruling. The bill was defeated by 111 votes to 20. When such a vote comes before the Dail again, I will once again vote in favour of legislating for the X-case.
There is now a moral imperative on the government to legislate for the X-case. If they had done their job at an earlier stage, the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar and the untold hardship of many others may have been prevented.
- additional reporting Gavan Reilly and Paul Hyland
(All Pictures: Photocall Ireland)
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Hugh could you post the names of those who bothered to reply. I think it’s important that the constituents of those who didn’t even reply should be allowed to challenge them on that failure
Hi Sonya,
We hope to be able to do this in the coming weeks.
Hugh
I tweeted and emailed my 2 sitting Govt. TD’s (Eoghan Murphy FG and Lucinda Creighton FG) for their stance on Weds and Thursday morning. Neither have replied thus far. I’ve made it clear that this is a make or break issue for me. I’d urge others to do the same.
Paul, you actually have four sitting govt TDs. I wrote to all four and like you got no response from the FG TDs but did get a response from Ruair Quinn and Kevin Humphreys.
Paul, Lucinda Creighton will resurface when she needs your vote, or there’s a chance for a good photo opportunity. She is a dead loss of a politician. Luckily, her constituents are starting to see through it, and with plenty of time to spread the word.
Abortion should be legalised in Ireland. Then if a women requires an abortion on medical reasons she won’t be told “it’s a catholic country”. It’s about choice if a women wants to have an abortion she shouldn’t have to travel to the UK.
I myself wouldn’t have an abortion unless for medical reasons, that’s my choice but it should be there for women who want to have one.
Abortion should be legalised…..it’s never that simple. Or maybe people think it is.
Is finding out your baby has downs syndrome reason enough? Should there be a time limit such as 12 weeks? Or can the baby/foetus be aborted up to 40 weeks or upon delivery if straight away the doctors see that there is something wrong with the baby/foetus?
I’m not writing this with an agenda, just genuine questions as I’m wondering do women know what they actually want in terms of rights to abortion.
The question of termination happening at 40 weeks doesn’t arise – people can look for one no problem, but they won’t find a doctor on the planet willing to carry one out. In general, the upper limit for termination is 28 weeks and after this, should problems arise with mother or baby labour is induced. The idea that women would be presenting at 40 weeks for termination is scare mongering on the part of pro-life.
Also, while some would terminate pregnancy due to conditions like DS, most actually would not, this has been confirmed in other countries where termination is legal, again, more scare mongering.
Thanks for the response James. They were genuine questions and I appreciate your reply.
It does seem that it’s a hard debate to ask genuine questions in because people automatically assume you have an agenda. I have plenty more questions but the Internet isn’t really the place for them as people can’t see the heart behind them….just words on a screen.
Ask away – just don’t troll! Termination is a good thing provided you know all the facts and apply a little common sense. There are some groups in society who would prefer you remain info-less regarding this, but the more info you know – the better! Seek and you shall find!
Well said Helen. Couldn’t agree more. It’s happening all around us, so burying our head in the same and shipping our women to England is a cowardly way to deal with this issue.
Don’t worry. I’m not a troll. I’m a regular commenter except on matters of abortion. I find that neither side dispenses much grace or an appreciation of where the other side is coming from (granted most staunch pro life representatives are infuriating).
I agree, also most people believe its a case of legalise and be done – it really isn’t. A whole regulatory framework would need to apply to ensure that any services provided stand against international standards, along with surrounding services such as family planning and counselling and how they might all become available along with legalising for termination, all the while having less and less money to provide for such a thing. Everyone focuses on the moral question which in my mind is fairly straight forward, nobody has yet asked how on earth such a service would be provided.
James, very well said and I agree. I’m sure our certainties on the morality of abortion may differ but you’re dead right.
(Slightly reminds me of the children’s referendum last week. I’ve worked in child care for 10 yrs and while legislation is very important the out working of it is being radically abused and ignored hence people’s confusion. Most of my former colleagues where very hesitant voting yes because they know that little is in place to implement them. It’s so bad that childrens residential centres are consistently ignoring HIQA recommendations….anyways that’s for a different discussion but you’re right in how much needs to be taken into account).
Your so wrong. In states in Usa it can be done right up to birth.
Yes, it can be done. That’s because the system that is used is based as follows: medically necessary terminations are carried out under Medicaid, free of charge to the mother.
Terminations from a family planning point of view must be self financed privately. Many women get these carried out underground, and very often this results in partial birth of the baby. If termination is carried out here, we must do so under medically safe and ethically compliant standards.
They sit on their blood stained hands.
I don’t care what TD’s / parties think, there are only 160 of them. We need a referendum on this.
I’m confident modern Ireland would vote for a woman’s right to choose by a huge margin.
Then you are sadly mistaken.
Rob, I agree with your opinion on the issue, but I’m afraid you are sadly mistaken about Ireland. The moral majority have been comfortably allowing our women suffer in silence for generations, so they are not going to be swayed by our dismay now. ‘Holy’ Ireland still pulls a lot of TD’s strings, unfortunately. They’re too busy saving souls to worry about a few women’s lives!!
We had two Referendums, twenty and ten years ago respectively, we voted Yes on both occasions. Supreme Court Judge Niall Mc Carthy insisted that it was necessary for the politicians to bring forward legislation to regulate the Supreme Court decision in the X Case. Our politicians have sat on their hands and like the three monkeys and the ostrich they don’t want to know. But now, they have to answer to the European Court of Human Rights. The Savita Halappanavar disgrace is surely the last straw.
The FG response is typical government-speak gibberish. What a truly despicable party they are. Kenny and Reilly’s hands are both covered in blood. Shame on them.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail give almost the same response,deflection to a so called expert group who are probably made up of 2 nuns and a priest,no suprises there
I believe what you see in both the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael official responses is standard and careful language which will not give away a position to hostage. That’s all about Political experience. On the other hand Sinn Fein have changed their position completely to adopt one that suits the emotion of the day.
Perhaps just to be comprehensive and up from could Sinn Fein advise if the abortion on demand that they now seek should be provided in Public Hospitals at taxpayers expense.
I don’t often agree with SF, but if they did say provide termination in public hospitals at tax payers expense I believe we may have a historic situation in our hands.
Legalise, publicise, control.
A woman should be allowed to do what she pleases with her own body.
What if a girl got raped and ended up becoming pregnant. Personally myself I couldn’t keep it as it would always be a reminder of what happened to you and what do you tell your child when they are old enough to ask who their father is…
“A woman should be allowed to do what she pleases with her own body”
A foetus is a separate human with a separate body and even a separate blood system.
Personally I don’t agree with abortion but at the same time I don’t think should be illegal. In the case where there is a serious threat to a woman’s life, or as you’ve said in the case of rape, should emergency contraception fail. Then I’d agree with it 100%.
Abortion when the mother and child are with healthy and the child was unplanned for whatever reason (contraception failed/ no contraception used) I disagree with but as I said it shouldn’t be illegal because I can’t imagine for a second that it’s a decision that a woman makes easily.
What has annoyed me this week is the sheer amount of nonsense that’s being spouted by both pro-life and pro-choice sides. Savita died from an error made by her doctor. Nobody has the facts yet for all we know the infection could have been there before the miscarriage
Separate human with a separate body and a separate blood stream? Really? So nothing to do with a woman’s body then? Well that makes things much less complicated. Phew!
Ms Praveen’s case is a textbook example of what happens in the case of untreated miscarriage. She contracted infection due to a bleed, turned into sepsis, multiple organ failure, death. Frankly, you couldn’t have written a better example if you tried.
thanks for that James where did you get your M.D. and access to Savita’s medical file? Call off the inquiry James has it all.
my point about the foetus being a separate body was merely pointing out that abortion is never as easy as either side would have you believe. In a previous thread I read a foetus being refered to as “a bunch of cells” tell that to a woman that suffered a miscarriage after trying for a baby.
Also James her name was Savita Hanapavalaar. If you can’t get her name right how can we trust your clear concise medical opinion?
I have suffered two heartbreaking miscarriages Mark. Doesn’t change how I feel about this case for one second. I shudder to think what would have happened if the fetal heart rate hadn’t stopped because ultimately I wasn’t having a baby I was having a miscarriage. I went on to have two healthy children later. Something Shavita never got the chance to do.
I have had a miscarriage. Two in fact.
I’m a nurse/midwife/APN. Knowing what everyone knows from the media reports, it sounds like a text book example. Enquiries are to ensure that any issues that arose and contributed to the death of this young woman don’t arise again, and any hint of wrong doing is addressed appropriately.
I thoroughly agree with you, termination is never as easy as yay or nay, having been the one who has very often to discuss this with families, mothers, fathers, I can tell you I’m fully aware of the fact that termination is a hell of a burden on anyone, and is about a hell of a far cry more than a question about a clump of cells.
And her name is Savita Praveen Halappanavar Mark.
I’m genuinely sorry to hear you suffered miscarriages. my entire point is that since last week I’ve read countless comments from people and as yet there is no report. Quite frankly we have no idea what happened outside of what we’ve read in the media.
Abortion did not “take” centre stage, the tragic death of a young woman was jumped on in a failed attempt to promote abortion.
Jumped on? Seems to be a common excuse for an argument for you so-called pro-lifers. Because you don’t have a valid argument in this case. A woman, with a heartbeat died because her dying foeutus’ heartbeat was given preference over hers. We the people voted against this 20 years ago. That is all.
#Sepsis and #Miscarriage are missing from list of tags proves my point
Oh yes. Your point totally proven. #delusional also missing.
Yeah, how dare her husband jump on this bandwagon by contacting the media and pro choice groups?
The Dark Ages politics of christinanity have no place in the 21st century.
Innocent women are still second class citizens in this backward country. “Pro Life” = pro death.
I don’t think they should be described as ‘Pro-Life’ as they advocate for ‘rights’ only between conception and birth. A better description is ‘Pro-Unborn’ as they don’t give a hoot about the living.
Andrew- or else ‘Anti-choice’. We shouldn’t allow them to name themselves with loaded, self-righteous language.
If the last 20 years has shown us anything it’s that all our political parties stand nowhere on the issue of abortion, they sit on the fence. This government is only doing something about it now because it has to, it was told to by the European Court of Human Rights.
Nothing has been done yet.
James Connolly
Somehow I doubt if you are a qualified nurse. I say that because you’re judgement of what happened in Galway is totally inaccurate. First of all the unfortunate young woman was being treated for an infection before the miscarriage was complete and we have no information as to whether sepsis had already been clinically observed at that stage. Any surgical intervention in the presence of sepsis could have been immediately fatal through shock which is a known hazard in such complications.
We should all stop pontificating on this case until the facts are published as this is a gross invasion to the family’s privacy and completely unfair if not monumentally libelous for the Hospital Medical Team in the case.
@Brendan I didn’t say anything has been done yet, to be honest I don’t expect much, the “expert group” have delivered their report, which was shown to the European Court to get their thumbs up and the government are considering it. They’re doing something, more than any other government in the last 20 years, but again, only because they have to, and it’s yet to be determined what they come up with, if anything at all. The world waits…
The ducking and diving by the establishment parties is truly shocking. What a backward country we live in. FF, FG and Labour are no longer capable of running this country. The sooner we kick them out the better.
its disgusting..
2012, not the 1800′s …
legislate now.. or are they taking their orders from rome and the hierarchials hypocrites in the church..
a woman 72 hours in labour.. my sympathies to the lady and her husband and family in india..
nothing short of torture.. disgraceful
WOW….the onky differences between ff and fg are probably the font used in their response! Labour following orders nicely there too………
Have we learned our lesson yet? Or will we vote these pack of tumors back into power?
How many scandals/brown envelopes/avoided answers/jobs for the boys/inaction on major issues/using the constitution to give bankers more money/giving billions to bad gamblers in Germany/cutting millions from medical budget/broken promises……
the list is endless and I’ve had enough..
ff & fg & labour are damaged goods…they are corrupt, they are incompetent and they are getting millions upon millions of our euros in pay, pensions and expenses.
Gary Fitzgerald, the current Sinn Féin policy on abortion has been in place for 20 years as can easily be proved from minutes of Árd Fheiseanna down the years. Read their policy again. Nowhere does it say they want abortion on demand. Why don’t you check your facts before jumping on the bandwagon yourself?
Well done Hugh O’Connell, great work, keep the pressure on the politicians.
It is understandable that there are now many calls for legislation and it is understandable that most politicians are nervous and wish to hide behind the recently delivered Report of the Expert Group. The terms of reference of the Expert Group are too narrow and, regrettably, legislation cannot provide a clear legal solution. The reason for legislation not providing a clear solution is because the wording of the Eight Amendment to to the Constitution, Article 40.3.3 creates a legal stalemate situation when the life of the mother and the life of the foetus conflict. This is because there is a guarantee of parity, of equality. Anything that a clinician might do by surgical intervention to advance the interests of the mother over the foetus or the foetus over the mother may amount to a very serious criminal offence. Legislation cannot cure defects or anomalies in Constitutional provisions. The Supreme Court Judges, due to their oath of office cannot criticise the Constitution or recommend changes to it. The Judges could only refer the matter to the legislature. The legislature should now allow a referendum to be put to the people. The Judges contrived, as best they could, as a holding measure a protection for intervention in case of real and substantial risk to the mother but that only applies if there is such immediate risk. It is a defence based not on law but on an interpretation of law by the then Supreme Court.
I urge people to read Professor Plunkett’s very clear and absolutely correct letter in Friday’s Irish Times. I am not a medical clinician but I must say that any clinician who intervenes to choose the mother over the foetus or the foetus over the mother is in great legal peril of exposure to a very serious criminal offence. That impedes the best clinical care. If a clinician in Ireland intervened to induce a 17 week old foetus with a heart beat, even with the mother’s life at major risk by not so doing, the clinician would be open to prosecution if anyone reported the intervention. Legally speaking, as a result of Article 40.3.3, the clinician is safest in administering antibiotics and fluids and then letting nature takes its course even though this may mean the unbearably tragic loss of both foetus and mother. It is wrong in law to blame clinicians who are merely obeying the law. On this issue, the law is a ass. The people of Ireland by the Eight Amendment to the Constitution inserted, for the best of intentions, a pro-life measure which, due to an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable, is capable of being profoundly anti-life in practice.
Article 40.3.3 is a plague on the pro-life and the pro-choice groups because it serves neither and produces a dreadful paralysis of adequate medical intervention in rare cases.
Please read Article 40.3.3 and you will recognise how it can produce the worst possible result in rare cases. It is my conviction that neither the pro-life nor the pro-choice groups would support a situation in which a mother’s life is placed at risk so that an expiring foetus still with a heart beat is not induced because this is what a defective law, a constitutional imperative and the Offences Against the Person Act dictate or compel.
Article 40.3.3 is a time-bomb and it needs to be dismantled before any more needless deaths occur. I favour real life over political expediency. The Export Group Report will not assist in guiding politicians or the rest of us on these complex issues because it did not include a review of Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution.
The Galway tragedy remains to be fully inquired into but the outcome of that inquiry does not have any bearing on the profoundly and dangerously defective Article 40.3.3 even though we cannot rule out the possibility that the hands of the clinicians may have been legally tied in the specific facts of that tragic case. If the law did prevent life saving care in that case, that would be a truly appalling consequence and it would mean that article 4.3.3 and the Offences Against the Person Act, 1861 killed an Irish resident in an Irish hospital.
Subject to the outcome of inquiries, I have a sinking feeling that bad law and not bad medical standards is the source of the tragedy but we will see.
I do not question the sincerity of views of any of those involved in this vitally important debate but it may well be the case that the current legal quagmire is due to politicians being frightened by the strength of feeling on this issue. Political expediency has created a legal fudge and the three largest political parties are frightened of losing popularity. This is understandable but it leaves a life threatening legal anomaly in place.
Please forgive one emotive expression. I come from a background, as the vast, vast majority of Irish people do, when we feel instinctively protective of mothers and pregnant mothers. We are properly inclined even to risk our own lives to protect the lives of mothers. We need to have the opportunity to vote and the courage to vote for what is right. What is right is to vote to rescind Article 40.3.3 and to replace it and the procuring of miscarriage offence with constitutional and legislative provisions which are clearly and adequately protective of life in the rare cases of conflict.
I pity the loss of life, I pity the cruel loss of the father and of the bereft parents but, if Article 40.3.3 had the impact I think, I also pity the clinicians involved who must have been tortured by this absolute nightmare.
Let us not spend years and years on Expert Reports. Sometimes we have to have the courage of our convictions.
Honest question, how is Ireland’s infant mortality rate so low?
Just as a matter of background to the question, according to the WHO http://apps.who.int/gho/data/?vid=93000# Ireland has a slightly lower infant mortality rate than the UK and multiple other places with a similar population makeup.
Don’t get me wrong this is great, as far as I’m concerned the fewer babies dying the better.
What is confusing me is the fact that birth defects happen.
Why isn’t this showing up in the numbers?
Irish nurses and doctors are some of the best, highly qualified health care providers in the world. (Own ego inflates!)
Not doubting that for a second, but without a freakishly superior genetic makeup, where are the babies that are, and I dislike this term hugely, incompatible with life?
Maybe because Ireland is not gathering it’s maternal death statistics accurately: http://www.medicalindependent.ie/page.aspx?title=maternal_death_%E2%80%93_into_the_great_unknown
Supposedly Ireland will adopt the UK’s statistic model from 2013 onwards.
Or at least, the statistics from the UN and WHO are not comparing like with like in each country, as some countries (like Ireland) use different metrics for arriving at their mortality rates.
Is the X case ruling the only show in town when it comes to abortion legislation? I don’t agree with allowing abortions for women who say they’re suicidal while denying them to women who aren’t prepared to say they are. Agree that what happened to Savita Halappanaver is a disgrace.
I wonder about the comment “This is a Catholic country”. It smacks of being a handy excuse. Is this case as much to do with how the healthcare system views women and their healthcare? Only a couple of years ago we had the scandal of the State itself performing abortions on women because they couldn’t be bothered checking properly if the women were actually miscarrying or not. They weren’t too worried about the Catholic church then.
This case is about the law. If it needs to be changed so that this doesn’t happen again then it should be changed. We need to take responsibility as an electorate and stop saying “The Church made me do it.”
How many lives will be saved if this legislaton will change? should we not target our energies on other issues first in this country? anyway as last referendum showed only 30% of people really care about childern. This issue has been hijacked by the media to deflect attention from the punitive measures that will be brought in in decembers budget.
One life lost due to Ms Praveens circumstances is one life too many. Also, legalising it will allow pregnant women access to full and proper health care, as is their right.
Sorry but pregnant women do have access to full healthcare in this country (as within our laws, which btw i dont agree with along with other laws) My point of the post is that this issue is being hijacked and the measures in the next budget will probably cost far more lives with cutbacks everywhere and nobody seems to give a damn. We just accept it. But we are up in arms at the X case ruling again.
You can try telling Mr Praveen that his wife had access to full health care but I’m not sure he’d believe you. The reason we are up in arms is because it is a very real situation that faces very many people very often.
There is no reason as to why people can’t focus on both the current economic climate and health matters – stop being a man and multitask.
What a hurtful and bizarre comment from someone who appears to have a child (based on the photo). What if it was your partner who died in this situation?
At local authority level, FF, with FG’s tacit support, are passing resolutions against any change in the law on abortion.
This is where the real face of the parties can be seen, not in Leinster House.
So what your saying to us is only 10% of our government had a spine and were willing to voice a position on the complete lack of women’s reproductive rights … In the same week they were condemning only 35% of the public voted on ‘strengthening’ children’s rights ….
People need to contact their own TDs in their own area (by email but include your address). I did. Two responded despite me saying there was no need for a reply. Both were pro-legislation and intend to act when the expert group report is published. (One said they get loads of correspondence from pro-life groups and individuals but those who want X legislated for were less likely to be in contact)
have your say