After the Vote...an epilogue
See the prequel to this post about the vote on the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution here.
Ireland has voted to remove the 8th Amendment, which protected the lives of both the mother and unborn child in pregnancy. The planned legislation will allow abortion for any reason up to twelve weeks (Head 7 in link 1 below); for undefined risk to mental health of mother up to viability (around the sixth month) (Head 4 in same link); and up to birth if this risk is deemed immediate, as there is no gestational limit mentioned in this case (Head 5 in same link). Risk to mental health of mother accounts for around 97% of all abortions for residents of England and Wales, a figure of around 180000 in one year (Sec. 2.15 and 2.16 in link 2 below) That’s nearly 500 a day, or one abortion every three minutes or so, and that’s only England and Wales. This type of abortion regime is now set to be available in Ireland. That is the reality of this ‘Yes’ vote.
I know some people probably voted because hard cases were presented. The horse has bolted now, but as I wrote before the vote, the 8th would not have denied any necessary treatment to a pregnant mother, even if the baby sadly died as an indirect result. The child conceived in rape is still a child with his or her own life to live; the child whose life may not be long still has a right to that life, to maybe receive a cuddle from their parents, a name and a decent burial. Doctors even get diagnoses wrong, and many who were expected to die early went on to live much longer!
I suspect if the people had been presented with the unfiltered truth about abortion, they may have rejected any attempt to remove this protection for unborn children. I believe that not a single poster for the Yes campaign mentioned either 'Baby' or 'Abortion', yet we were being asked, when you get down to it, if we wanted to remove the 8th in order to legalise the killing of babies in the womb by abortion. If "Together for Yes" had called themselves "Together for Abortion" or "Together for Killing People in the Womb", how might the vote have gone? Why hide the reality? Why not really own what you are campaigning for? Why did people tear down or deface so many ‘No’ posters that tried to highlight the reality of abortion? Why protest when a woman conceived through rape wanted to speak? Why so much anger at those trying to retain protection for both mother and child? Now, abortion seems set to come in under a guise of care and compassion, when the reality for people growing in the womb is devastatingly final and horrific. For them, there is no grey area. It is as black or white as life or death. And they are innocent of any circumstances around their conception, as we once were too.
Doctors will not have real conscientious objection under the proposals, as they would have to refer to someone else. As an analogy, imagine someone asking if you would kill their brother. If you answer "No, but I'll send you to someone who will", you are still very much involved in that killing.
Our right to our lives still exists after this vote. The 8th acknowledged a pre-existing right, it did not create one. Voting away acknowledgement of this right did not remove its existence. Our lives still begin at conception. Your life did, my life did. From there, we grow. From there, our right to our lives begins, even if only a third of us in Ireland seem to see this at this time. Dehumanising people at any stage of life has led to many atrocities in history. Respecting and protecting human life in the womb should be a given, but somehow it seems not to be.
I am sorry today and very sad and somewhat afraid for the future. I mourn for those that will be killed by 'choice', whose right to life will fail to be acknowledged and protected. Yet I hope for the future too. Perhaps many voted without really fully realising what they had done. Now is the time to work and pray to change hearts and minds, one person at a time. I was once awoken, I believe by grace, to the reality of abortion. Others can too. It’s also time to continue to strive to elect as many politicians as we can who will defend life from conception to natural death; to strive for a pro-life majority who can then vote abortion out.
May the Good Lord help and bless us after this vote. May we continue to protect innocent human lives, within the womb and without. Life is beautiful. It can be hard, yes, but it is beautiful. This battle is over, but the war to protect human lives continues. Life is beautiful!
1. https://health.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/General-Scheme-for-Publication.pdf
Contains Irish Public Sector Information licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence (I think) Link to licence: https://circulars.gov.ie/pdf/circular/per/2016/12.pdf
2.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679028/Abortions_stats_England_Wales_2016.pdf
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
Ireland has voted to remove the 8th Amendment, which protected the lives of both the mother and unborn child in pregnancy. The planned legislation will allow abortion for any reason up to twelve weeks (Head 7 in link 1 below); for undefined risk to mental health of mother up to viability (around the sixth month) (Head 4 in same link); and up to birth if this risk is deemed immediate, as there is no gestational limit mentioned in this case (Head 5 in same link). Risk to mental health of mother accounts for around 97% of all abortions for residents of England and Wales, a figure of around 180000 in one year (Sec. 2.15 and 2.16 in link 2 below) That’s nearly 500 a day, or one abortion every three minutes or so, and that’s only England and Wales. This type of abortion regime is now set to be available in Ireland. That is the reality of this ‘Yes’ vote.
I know some people probably voted because hard cases were presented. The horse has bolted now, but as I wrote before the vote, the 8th would not have denied any necessary treatment to a pregnant mother, even if the baby sadly died as an indirect result. The child conceived in rape is still a child with his or her own life to live; the child whose life may not be long still has a right to that life, to maybe receive a cuddle from their parents, a name and a decent burial. Doctors even get diagnoses wrong, and many who were expected to die early went on to live much longer!
I suspect if the people had been presented with the unfiltered truth about abortion, they may have rejected any attempt to remove this protection for unborn children. I believe that not a single poster for the Yes campaign mentioned either 'Baby' or 'Abortion', yet we were being asked, when you get down to it, if we wanted to remove the 8th in order to legalise the killing of babies in the womb by abortion. If "Together for Yes" had called themselves "Together for Abortion" or "Together for Killing People in the Womb", how might the vote have gone? Why hide the reality? Why not really own what you are campaigning for? Why did people tear down or deface so many ‘No’ posters that tried to highlight the reality of abortion? Why protest when a woman conceived through rape wanted to speak? Why so much anger at those trying to retain protection for both mother and child? Now, abortion seems set to come in under a guise of care and compassion, when the reality for people growing in the womb is devastatingly final and horrific. For them, there is no grey area. It is as black or white as life or death. And they are innocent of any circumstances around their conception, as we once were too.
Doctors will not have real conscientious objection under the proposals, as they would have to refer to someone else. As an analogy, imagine someone asking if you would kill their brother. If you answer "No, but I'll send you to someone who will", you are still very much involved in that killing.
Our right to our lives still exists after this vote. The 8th acknowledged a pre-existing right, it did not create one. Voting away acknowledgement of this right did not remove its existence. Our lives still begin at conception. Your life did, my life did. From there, we grow. From there, our right to our lives begins, even if only a third of us in Ireland seem to see this at this time. Dehumanising people at any stage of life has led to many atrocities in history. Respecting and protecting human life in the womb should be a given, but somehow it seems not to be.
I am sorry today and very sad and somewhat afraid for the future. I mourn for those that will be killed by 'choice', whose right to life will fail to be acknowledged and protected. Yet I hope for the future too. Perhaps many voted without really fully realising what they had done. Now is the time to work and pray to change hearts and minds, one person at a time. I was once awoken, I believe by grace, to the reality of abortion. Others can too. It’s also time to continue to strive to elect as many politicians as we can who will defend life from conception to natural death; to strive for a pro-life majority who can then vote abortion out.
May the Good Lord help and bless us after this vote. May we continue to protect innocent human lives, within the womb and without. Life is beautiful. It can be hard, yes, but it is beautiful. This battle is over, but the war to protect human lives continues. Life is beautiful!
1. https://health.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/General-Scheme-for-Publication.pdf
Contains Irish Public Sector Information licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence (I think) Link to licence: https://circulars.gov.ie/pdf/circular/per/2016/12.pdf
2.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679028/Abortions_stats_England_Wales_2016.pdf
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
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