Compassion for the mother is never achieved by destroying the innocent
SIR, Last Tuesday night Dec 12th Katie Ascough, the impeached prolife UCD Student Union President, was our guest speaker for the launch of Kerry Right to Life. Over 200 people turned up and it was wonderful to be joined by so many doctors, Bishop Ray Browne, clergy and lay people.
It was very fitting that our launch coincided with a press release on the same day from the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. New figures show that Ireland is one of the safest places in the world to have a baby, with a maternal death rate of 6.5 per 100,000. The Institute stated that ‘maternal death is extremely rare and the figures should offer reassurance about the high level of maternal care and the safety of the Irish maternity services for women and babies.’ Irish figures are better than the UK where abortion has resulted in the deaths of 8.8 million babies since the abortion law was enacted 50 years ago in 1967.
There are 100,000 people alive today as a result of Ireland’s Eighth Amendment or Article 40.3.3 which says: ‘ The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.’
Kerry Right to Life believes that uphold- ing the right to life of both the mother and her baby, as enshrined in our Constitution, is the most important human rights issue of this generation. We believe that the right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights and without the right to life all other human rights are meaningless.
We are proud of what Ireland has achieved in terms of being a world leader in the provision of maternity care. We believe that compassion for the mother is extremely important, but is never served through destroying the innocent.
We encourage the people of Kerry to make a New Year’s resolution to get involved in our group, which is chaired by Cllr. John Joe Culloty (FF) and to work together to uphold the right to life.
We are endorsed by Sr. Consilio and three of our five politicians, Michael and Danny Healy Rae (Independents) and John Brassil (FF). We have a facebook page Kerry Right to Life and our email is kerryrighttolife@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
Cllr. John Joe Culloty FF, Anne Keeling, Joe Green, Mary E. Fitzgibbon, Dr. Siobhan Crowley, Marie Donnelly, Robert Pierse, Richard Hurley, Catherina Scully, Claire O’Donoghue & Denis O’Connor