Posted on 11/18/2001 4:44:57 AM PST by Happygal
The Irish Family Planning Association has said that the latest abortion statistics for Ireland show that, regardless of whether or not there is a referendum on the issue, the number of women traveling to the UK for abortions will continue to increase.
The IFPA was commenting on figures released today by the UK Office for National Statistics which show that, during the second quarter of 2001, a total of 1,715 women who had abortions in the UK gave Irish addresses.These second quarter figures are the highest on record for any quarter and show an increase of 19 on the first three months of the year. In the first quarter, 1,696 women traveled from Ireland to the UK for abortions.
“At this stage, we can assume that the end-of year figure will surpass last year’s total of 6,500 and will probably reach 7,000. The clear message behind these figures is that, regardless of whether or not there is a referendum on abortion in the spring, the reality will remain the same: Irish women will continue to leave our shores for abortions services in the UK and elsewhere,” according to Tony O’Brien, Chief Executive of the Irish Family Planning Association.
As the Government attempts to pass legislation which has the narrow objective of over-turning the Supreme Court ruling in the X case, it will simply bury its head in the sand when it comes to confronting the reality of Irish abortion.The Taoiseach has said that the woman’s right to travel will be reaffirmed in his new abortion proposals, but this simply gets him off the hook. By exporting our abortion figures, the Taoiseach and his Government can remain unaccountable for the continued increase in the number of women traveling for abortions.
"Just a week out from the anniversary of the All Party Committee’s report on abortion, the only thing that has changed is that our abortion figures have increased. No new money has been spent on preventative and education programmes and the new Crisis Pregnancy Agency remains aspirational.
"The hours of debate currently underway in the Dail on the Government’s Bill to overturn the X Case would be better spent on debate and action concerned with reducing the number traveling to the UK. Furthermore, these figures point to the need for a morerealistic approach to abortion in Ireland,” added Tony O’Brien.
As for the introduction of abortion into the country, personally I'd like to see something seriously done with the state of the health service in general first. Waiting lists for operations increase - often public patients must wait years for a routine op!
I can just see it now, a girl goes to her doc and tries to schedule an abortion. She gets her appointment when the child is starting school!
Down, I imagine falls under the British health service, no?
It’s not just Ireland the left resent the freedom of the Ballot box and will always use lies and ‘compassion’ to get their way. They infest schools, colleges and media to get their propaganda across. This is why freedom is not free and democracy requires eternal vigilance
If the left can remove that vigilance and make those who are vigilant look foolish they have won. This is why the enforcement of abortion and other left wing anti-human activity cannot be defeated if we only scratch the surface.
For issues of the left to dissipate a free press must be returned. This leads to a freely elected government which in turn liberates schools and colleges from the stranglehold of the left, and therefore public opinion is not guided by one faction only.
How can we recognise the forces of the left? – follow the money – the abortion industry is huge and controls many politicians and media – and there are many waiting in the wings who would be happy to benefit from this support.
Until the left has been removed from is position of influence then they will always be back again and again referendum after referendum. Until they win then it's "time to put the past behind us."
The left have always used imaginary figures to support their theories so the figures quoted by IFPA should not be treated with any credibility.
There is no verifible tracking of these claims because of of the "bogus Right to Privacy Law" innate in the creation of our U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
I hope that today's Irish young women have not forgotten so easily their heritage and their families' former persecution by population control through immediate starvation.
We Americans were stupid enough to believe the Planned Parenthood's and population controllers' figures of abortions and those who died by illegal abortions, let's hope my Irish people are smarter than we ignorant American Irish were.
At least a successful referendum will row back the ridiculous rulings in the courts. Hard cases (X-case) make bad law and I agree that it is impossible to get a true figure on the rate of abortion.
By the narrowest of margins, in a record low turnout, Ireland has voted against endorsing the Nice treaty that opens up European Union membership to many Eastern European counties.
The result of the referendum on June 7 came as a shock to the political establishment in Dublin, which had uniformly backed a “Yes” vote. Opinion polls on the eve of the referendum had predicted the measure would pass comfortably.
The referendum was held after a very short campaign and saw a turnout of just 35 percent by Ireland's 2.9 million registered voters. Only two constituencies out of 41 returned a “Yes” vote, with the “No” camp totalling 529,478, a majority of only 76,017 votes (53.87 percent).
The message I get from the referendum was not one of rejection. It was either, "What's the point? They'll do what they want anyway" or "I don't give a damn".
The result looks like APATHY 66%; YES 16%; NO 18%.
The EU response/directive was: "Keep asking the question until the answer is yes!"
Exactly what I was thinking. If someone can kill another human being, they certainly aren't above lying.
While we get the Kennedys(Although Reagan made up for it).
Kind of like voting for school budgets in Upstate New York where they always cut the kids' sports teams and extracurricular activities first!
Perhaps the abortion referendum is an election stunt. Sinn Fein/IRA is in favour of limited abortion and it gave the Irish establishment a bloody nose in the Nice treaty vote.
Maybe this is Ahern's way of getting his own back in advance of or in tandem with the Irish General election in 2002. Just a thought.
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