If we take from the Constitution we take away our rights

OUR Constitution guarantees certain fundamental rights. Since its establishment in 1937 and voted on by the people, the forthcoming referendum is the first time we have been asked to take from the Constitution, the most basic human rights of all from people, the right to life and hand it over to politicians to decide. Once we start taking away elements of the Constitution, we are gradually taking away our rights. The question ought to be asked, would we be prepared to do that for any other right we have under the Constitution, eg property rights and hand them over to politicians to manipulate as they choose.

In the debate around the referendum, most of the time the child in the womb is not mentioned, it is as if it doesn’t exist and as if its health and wellbeing doesn’t count. It is even being described by some in many terms other than a child for the sole purpose of creating a distraction.

For many centuries some lives were considered more important than others, but in one of the most important step forwards in the 20th Century, the human right to life became more protected in national and international laws. Yet we are being asked to take a backward step and remove that right by public vote.

What is being proposed in the forthcoming referendum is to take away all of the human rights of protection from the unborn in the Constitution. There are people who try to convince us that unborn children are not living human beings. Their claim is that they are only a clump of cells and are only potential human beings, when they really are human beings with potential if given the opportunity.

Those in favour of repeal are trying to differentiate between human beings. They appear to be saying that a child born at say 24 weeks is suddenly a human being the minute it is born, but another child in the womb at 30 weeks or more is not a human being. This does not make logical sense. If this referendum is passed, government bills will be enacted allowing for extreme abortion laws and once the door of abortion is open there will be no facility to close it. In all countries where abortion became legalised, abortions increased as they became more culturally acceptable, so why would Ireland be any different.

The sad case of Savita Hallipanavar and others have been mentioned many times in this debate to promote repeal, but all three reports made it clear that hospital mismanagement of her health was at the hearth of her death. If her life could have been saved through intervention, the law as it stands allowed for that intervention. Those in favour of abortion do not wish to acknowledge this.

Our Taoiseach and Minister Simon Harris who claimed to be strongly pro life before getting elected have rightly spoken about the difficult and lonely place some women find themselves in for one reason or another, especially regarding the so called hard cases which is very understandable. The original thoughts for allowing abortion was based on the need to address the issue of the ‘hard cases’. Unfortunately these hard cases are now being used to promote the broader abortion agenda. If the government wished to just deal with the hard cases it could have put forward a proposal for such cases, instead of the present proposal of abortion on demand without restriction. If such a position had been adopted it would have created a somewhat different ethical and moral debate. Just two years ago, all of our parties in the Dail were commemorating the centenary of the 1916 rising. The 1916 Proclamation pledged to cherish all of the children of the nation equally. Unfortunately those parties, including those who claim to be Republican parties, do not appear to cherish all unborn children equally.

It is incredible that our political parties who claim to be standing up for the marginalised in society, are now prepared to promote the extinguishing of the most defenceless beings in society, the unborn. They ought to remember that without the right to life all other rights are meaningless. We get the right to choose a lot of things in life but surely not the right to take a human life. The death penalty has even been taken from our statute books.

As a small nation, we have a unique opportunity to send out a message to the rest of the world that we cherish all life. We have had many atrocities in this country, but passing the forthcoming referendum will be the bloodiest day in Irish history. Even if it becomes legal, that does not make it right.

As Martin Luther King famously said, “Our life begins to end the day we stay silent on the things that matter. Sincerely,

Christy Kelly, Templeglantine.