On the 40th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands this past week, many reflected on the fact that Sands would likely have called off his campaign had he seen the face of ‘Republicanism’ in 2021, a motley crue of footsoldiers of the British abortion industry and Westminster’s anti baby lobby.
In the Dail this week, pro abortion Sinn Fein Senator Paul Gavan condemned Catholics for praying in public during Lent.
Gavan then pathetically begged former RUC officer and now Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to implement bans on Catholics from praying in public.
The pro abortion politician then provided alleged quotes from a campaign called ‘Together for Safety’, alleging that women had been ‘intimidated’ attending maternal services.
This coincidentally mirrored the a similar situation involving Simon Harris last January when he repeated bizarre and unsubstantiated accusations that he plucked from an anonymous Antifa ran account on Twitter.
Sinn Fein have been busy with this issue up North also, implementing the will of their superiors in Westminster by trying to smear those opposing abortion as being ‘intimidating’, when in actuality they are merely praying and offering women an alternative to destroying their baby.
Nowhere else in Europe has exclusion zones for abortion clinics like the ones being proposed by Sinn Fein. It also needs to be said, that other countries in Europe tend to build for purpose abortion clinics rather than putting abortion wards into Maternity Hospitals, down the halls from where babies are being born alive with the intention of being kept alive (those whom the media macabrely call ‘much wanted babies’).
On the 3rd anniversary of the Repeal of the 8th Amendment, it is remarkable that such measures are being considered for a total of a few dozen people praying quietly near hospitals. In the months to come, these same politicians will vote once more to deny pain relief to babies being aborted, to make sure that babies born alive are left to die in abortions, just as they did in 2018. Whatever the solution to opposing these brutal laws is, we are yet to find it. We don’t have the solution, but the shell shock needs to wear off and people need to get back to campaigning.
You can read the pathetic words of the British abortion industry’s favourite Irish political party below:
It is good to see the Minister of State and I thank him for coming in. He will be aware we are coming up on the third anniversary of the historic vote to repeal the eighth amendment to the Constitution.
I was proud to campaign alongside my party for repeal. Unfortunately, I am old enough to remember the first referendum in 1983. I campaigned against that referendum.
After the 2018 referendum, the Minister of State will be aware that the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, promised legislation to establish safe access zones outside hospitals. He will also be aware of the commitment given in the programme for Government to establish exclusion zones around medical facilities. However, three years on from the original promise, there is still no sign of that legislation. I wish to ask about the status of and plans for advancing the safe access zones Bill.
The Minister of State will be aware that, every week, there are gatherings outside maternity hospitals by anti-choice protestors. The previous Government promised safe access zone legislation to ensure that these protests would not take place outside those hospitals. There are people monitoring, marching, praying and watching women going in and out of maternity hospitals. Every day over Lent, there were protestors outside the maternity hospital in my home city of Limerick.
I hope the Minister of State will agree with me that women have fundamental rights to privacy and dignity, especially so when they are visiting a hospital. I want him to think about the impact of these protestors on women as they access healthcare across the State. I ask him to listen to the following quotes from women who have encountered these protestors. I am grateful to my colleagues in Together for Safety for supplying them. The first quote is:
She asked me if I had an appointment across the road. I presumed she was making small talk as she also had one so I said yes I did. She told me she and her friends were praying that no babies were murdered in the hospital that day.
A second quote is:
They were sprinkling holy water and saying prayers outside our hospital setting while there is women having miscarriages, or having stillbirths each week or carrying their babies out in white coffins.
A third quote is:
We were attending the hospital because our baby had decreased foetal movements in the third trimester. Thankfully everything was fine, but the experience was pretty terrifying none the less. We are a same sex couple and this made me feel even more self conscious. My wife was heavily pregnant and in pain, I was holding her hand as we approached the hospital, and the all male group of protesters were really intimidating.
These protests, which are happening outside many hospitals throughout the State, are attempting to intimidate and cause upset. They are invading women and pregnant people's privacy and bodily autonomy at a profoundly vulnerable and sensitive time. People should not have to access healthcare like this.
Legislation is promised. Can the Minister of State give me a timeline as to when it will be delivered? I appreciate that the working out of this legislation is complex and that there are competing constitutional rights, but the Department has had three years to do that work, so it should be ready to produce the legislation by now. There are examples of best practice legislation from, for example, a number of states in Australia and a number of provinces in Canada. There is no end of good examples. An excellent research paper has been produced on this topic.
In a previous answer to my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, last year, the Minister assured him that women and healthcare staff "should be assured that there is existing legislation in place to protect them and to protect patients." That statement was not correct. The protesters to whom I am referring are in violation of lockdown rules, but according to the Garda, not of public order rules. We need to see and pass the legislation. I look forward to a response.
