Three petitioners in the case A, B & C v. Ireland allege that they were forced to travel overseas to obtain abortions, undergoing unnecessary expenses and hardship due to the nation's pro-life laws. They claim violations of various rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.

In the past month, the reportage of the ABC case in the Irish media has involved a deliberate attempt to confuse legitimate medical treatments and abortion. The Irish Times on January 6th published the disingenuous and misleading headline “Up to 683 may have had lawful abortions in 2008”. The article which followed attempted to describe medical treatment for ectopic pregnancy as an abortion. It is no such thing – it can be a salpingotomy, or (if the affected tube is removed) a salpingectomy. Likewise, treatment for cancer of the uterus where the womb is removed is a hysterectomy.

Do these medical terms matter? “Absolutely, or medical terminology becomes a nonsense, where practitioners describe a tonsillectomy as an amputation,” says Dr Seán Ó Domhnaill of the Life Institute. “But the intent of the treatment is also of paramount importance. Where a mother suffers an ectopic pregnancy or cancer during pregnancy, she is fully entitled to the medical treatment even if that treatment may unintentionally cause the death of her unborn child. The intent is to cure, not to kill the baby, and the death of the child is an unfortunate and unintended side-effect.”

The four Irish professors of obstetricians and gynaecology stated this fact in 1992, and confirmed that abortion is never medically necessary. The IFPA through the ABC case, and with the help of the media, are now attempting to cause confusion and to have the Irish people believe that medical treatment is “lawful abortion” when it is no such thing. In doing so they are adding considerably to the distress suffered by mothers who have lost their unborn children through no fault of their own, by insisting that the legitimate medical treatment they received was an abortion. For the self-styled champions of women’s rights, that doesn’t seem to be a consideration.

Source: Youth Defence

[BACK TO NEWS HEADLINES]