3 Years After the Referendum the Lives of 18 Unborn Children are are Ended Every Day in This State- Tóibín
On the 3rd anniversary of the Abortion Referendum Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín stated, as a result of the referendum, each day, the lives of 18 unborn children are are ended in this state. These are children who would be in our schools, football pitches, playgrounds.and our families. The harshness of the new regime that makes it legal of the state to end the life of one individual living human being, never my 6,666 lives is hard to fathom.
“Many abortion campaigners stated during the campaign that legalising abortion in Ireland would simply mean that the abortions that were happening anyway would happen here in Ireland. However human rights campaigners such as ourselves stated that Ireland would follow the same path as every other country that legalised abortion and see a massive spike in the number of terminations of life. This has now sadly come to pass”.
“98.2% of abortions were carried out on health babies and health mothers. An illegal abortion took place on the National Maternity Hospital in March 2019 yet the government has done nothing. Notification for this abortion was made outside of the statutory 28 days laid down by the legislation also only 1 obstetrician examined the mother in question. 26 months after this took place there still has been no independent investigation into what happened”.
"In 2018 I voted against the abortion bill in the Dáil, along with fifteen other Human Rights TDs. We introduced a number of amendments to the Bill at that time seeking to, among other things, ban sex-selective abortions, abortions on the grounds of disability, and to ensure the unborn would be given pain relief in the case of a late term abortions. Incredibly the government and much of the opposition opposed these amendments - including the one on pain relief. Because of my Human Rights stance I was suspended from Sinn Féin and ultimately forced out of that party”.
“This was a matter of conscience and compassion for me - I have always believed, throughout my political activism, that everyone has value and everyone should be protected. I have always believed that we must as a society cherish all the children equally. I have always had a particular concern for the most vulnerable in our society - people who are homeless, people with disabilities, refugees, people in nursing homes, members of the Travelling community and unborn children. The inherent value of all human life is a core belief of mine and something I couldn't compromise on in 2018".
"Shockingly Aontú is now the only party in the Dáil that seeks to protect the life of everyone in society. Aontú and some other mainly Independent politicians recently introduced a Bill to ensure that unborn children be granted pain relief prior to late term abortion. It is a very reasonable proposal seeking to inject some sort of mercy into a inhumane law. I have pro-choice friends who have said they agree with our Bill on pain relief, and I know from canvassing and campaigning that there are many people around the country who are deeply shocked to learn that in 2018 the government voted against an amendment which sought pain relief for the unborn. Currently for Surgical Procedures on an unborn child, pain relief is used. Even when operating on an animal in this country, the law states that pain relief must be used. Yet the law is silent in the case of an unborn child”.
