Sir, – I was filled with great astonishment after reading the Canadian prime minister's comments on Ireland's abortion laws ("Trudeau urges Varadkar to see abortion as a 'fundamental right'", August 21st). Canada should hang its head in shame as it has a barbaric abortion law where a mother can abort her child up until birth. A total of 491 babies (full term) were left to die after botched abortions over a nine-year period. This is a horrendous fact. How can Canada deem this law morally and socially acceptable?
I urge our Government and all the people of Ireland to dismiss his comments and instead question Canada’s law. The Eighth Amendment celebrates equality and diversity, in protecting all mothers and their babies from the harmful act of abortion. – Yours, etc,
THERESA JOHNSTON,
Crozon,
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Sligo.
Sir, – The sentence that should really make us all sit up in your coverage of the Taoiseach’s discussion of this country’s upcoming referendum, during his visit with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, is the following by your reporter: “In Canada, abortion is legal at all stages during pregnancy and some Irish pro-choice campaigners have used the country as an example of how they would like to reform Ireland’s abortion regime.”
If this is “best practice” and “model” behaviour, then it beggars belief as to what the “worst” is.
If you did not accept the validity of the slippery slope argument, now you should be able to see clearly what the ultimate aim is.
Be in no doubt now that’s what we will be voting for, irrespective of the language and the promises of regulation. If we open up the unborn child to the possibility of abortion via legal means, that means ultimately that no child is safe until it is born. – Yours, etc,
WILLIE HAYES,
Midleton,
Co Cork.
A chara, – I note that Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has seen fit to raise the issue of Ireland’s abortion regime with our Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during his visit to that country, calling on him to liberalise it. I hope Mr Varadkar saw fit to reciprocate by pointing out that Canada’s regime has resulted in one in five pregnancies ending in abortion, effectively no protection for the unborn child prior to birth, and the practice of generally allowing children who survive abortion attempts and are born alive to receive no medical attention and die. – Is mise,
Rev PATRICK G BURKE,
Castlecomer,
Co Kilkenny.
Sir, – I would like to thank Justin Trudeau for speaking up for women in Ireland and explaining the truth to Leo Varadkar: “ . . . that reproductive rights for women are integral to women’s rights in general, and women’s rights are human rights”.
It is good to see Mr Varadkar engaging in this discussion, but why does a foreign premier have to explain this to him?
Why do so many Irish politicians either fail to see that the right not to continue a pregnancy is a women’s fundamental rights issue or fail to speak out about it? Do they really not understand, after all those cases, over so many years, that the Eighth Amendment can deny women even the most basic of human rights?
Do they ever read the criticisms by the human rights bodies that Ireland reports to? Are they wholly unaware that, for the second time in a year, the UN Committee on Human Rights has ordered Ireland to pay compensation to a woman who was forced to travel in a case of fatal foetal anomaly and also ruled, as in the first case, that our country subjected her to cruel and inhumane treatment?
Were they listening in the Dáil when the then-minister for justice Alan Shatter explained that, because of the Eighth Amendment, even “the right of pregnant women to have their health protected is, under our constitutional framework, a qualified right”? Do they know that this means that women with happy, wanted pregnancies can find their fundamental right to health and bodily integrity infringed without their consent because of the Eighth Amendment?
I hope Mr Varadkar’s Government will take on board the suggestion, by a member of the UN Committee Against Torture, that the State has a responsibility to raise citizens’ awareness of Ireland’s human rights obligations before we have a referendum. It seems like there may be a steep learning curve for some Oireachtas members too. – Yours, etc,
Dr SANDRA McAVOY,
Cork.