State has already opened the door
■ The infamous Treaty of Limerick was signed in 1691 and subsequently broken by the English. Thus we have the cry of “Remember Limerick ... Cuimhnigh ar Luimneach”. The Irish people should now remember Wednesday, March 7, 2018, as another historic Limerick day.
On that day, when pronouncing judgment in a family case, seven Supreme Court judges sat in Limerick’s new courts complex and unanimously endorsed the State’s argument that an unborn baby has no constitutional rights whatsoever apart from the right to life enshrined in the Eighth Amendment. The State counsel had described birth as the ‘brightline event’ only after which the baby acquires all other legal rights. Not one of the seven judges demurred at this argument.
The logical conclusion to be taken from their adjudication is that should the Eighth Amendment be repealed the unborn will be completely dependent on the mercy of his/her mother until birth. Any challenge to future abortion laws, on behalf of the unborn, by others (even by the father) would not be entertained by the courts since the unborn wouldn’t have any legal rights.
From the court’s perspective the piercing of an unborn would be of no more interest than a piercing for an earring or a tattoo. The only challenge likely to be admissible to the courts would be one on behalf of a pregnant woman claiming that the abortion laws are too restrictive.
The Government is now proclaiming that, if the Eighth Amendment is gone, any unwanted pregnancy that has reached viability (ie 24 weeks, approximately) will be delivered and not aborted. The courts will be indifferent to this proposal and should a future Government baulk at the expense of being responsible for such orphans until adulthood, it is possible it could easily renege from this position.
Remember, when you go to vote on Friday May 25, that the State’s ‘brightline’ argument, implicitly accepted by the Supreme Court, opens the door to abortion until birth and is, in my opinion, a template for abortion on demand. Mar sin, cuimhnigh ar Luimneach 2018.
Liam O’Mahony Rinn Ua gCuanach, Co Phortláirge