Harney fails to back traumatised women

Monday, February 08, 2010

AFTER reading the Human Rights Watch report (Irish Examiner, January 28), it astounds me that the Government still ignores the demand to legalise abortion in Ireland.

The Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, has plenty of time to travel to the US for meaningless PR trips with FÁS, yet she has no time to acknowledge the trauma that forces 14 women a day to travel in shame and secret to Britain to obtain an abortion.

She refused to meet the Human Rights Watch group with regard to their investigation.

It is time this failed minister should exit politics: the health service is a shambles; the cost of medical care has increased under her watch and the Crisis Pregnancy Agency, which she oversees, is a meandering, inept organistation that fails to help vulnerable women.

Women should vote for women who support them.

Mary Harney should exit in shame because of her appalling performance in politics and her lack of interest in women’s basic human rights.

She wouldn’t have my sympathy, unlike the thousands of women who are ignored and criminalised by her government.

Maura Lane
Upper Rathmines Road
Rathmines
Dublin 6

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, February 08, 2010