The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘A dark day for Kerry’ claims ‘No’ campaign
THE Kerry Right to Life campaign has called the ‘Yes’ vote for Repeal the Eighth, a ‘dark day for Kerry’ and has vowed to continue to “stand up for life”.
“We have seen evil in our history. Abortion is evil; it is a crime and can never be justified. This is the first time in history that a nation has voted not to add but to remove human rights from the constitution. Today is not a day for Ireland to celebrate. It is a dark and sad day in the history of our nation,” said PRO Mary Fitzgibbon in a prepared statement for the press.
“We stand for real compassion, compassion that does not kill but seeks to protect and support both the mother and her unborn child. We remember all missing Irish children because of the injustice of abortion and the thousands who will be missing in the future because of this catastrophic injustice visited on our nation today.”
The Kerry Right to Life group thanked the people of Kerry for their support and said their fight goes on.
“We will continue to stand up for life. As a group of nurses, midwives, doctors, lawyers, students and ordinary people we will continue to actively support and care for those who find themselves considering abortion. We thank the people of Kerry who gave us their incredible support and for their witness in defence of the unborn. The government’s proposed legislation will not help women; it will just destroy thousands of innocent lives.
Chairman of Right to Life, Cllr John Joe Culloty, said he was very ‘disappointed’ at the result and that there should be no need to Repeal the Eighth if Governments had done more in the past to help women who needed it.
“There was a lack of willpower to help women in crisis. If there were better services then it would be less necessary to repeal the Eighth. I’m disappointed that previous governments didn’t do more for perinatal hospice care and counselling. They are sitting for the summer to get this through, why didn’t they sit for the summer to get better services?”
He said that despite the ‘Yes’ vote in Kerry, he still represents the views of more than four out of 10 of his constituents in the county.