Parties silent over pro-life ad to avoid pre-election row

THE Government is trying to avoid a row with the pro-life movement in the run-up to the election.

Neither Fianna Fáil nor the PDs are responding to an attack ad by the Pro-Life Campaign questioning the parties’ commitment to the unborn. The campaign, a non-denominational lobby group whose stated aim is to “defend human life at all stages, from conception to natural death”, says it is the start of a campaign to throw a spotlight on the Government’s record on the issue.

But neither Fianna Fáil nor the PDs chose to defend its record in face of the attack, with spokespersons for both parties declining to comment.

The advert, published in Tuesday’s edition of this paper, asked: “Do Fianna Fáil and the PDs care about human life? Germany and Italy now protect human embryos from deliberate destruction. But in Ireland, Fianna Fáil and the PDs appointed a commission which voted 24-1 for research that destroys living human embryos. Before a European court, the Government suggested that the Irish Constitution may not protect disabled unborn children.”

The “24-1 vote” was a reference to the Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction, the members of which, with one exception, recommended embryo research “should be permitted but only on surplus embryos” from in-vitro fertilisation. The European court reference concerned a case in which a plaintiff known only as D challenged Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion.

During that case, State lawyers said if it was established that there was no realistic prospect of a foetus being born alive, there was a tenable argument the foetus was not an “unborn” as defined by the Constitution.

The advert went on to cite poll findings which were favourable to the pro-life position, before stating: “In this year’s election, support politicians who will: protect human embryos, oppose abortion legislation and promote positive alternatives to abortion.”

A senior opposition party source, who did not wish to be named, said he wasn’t surprised at the lack of response from the Government. “There’s nothing to be gained from having the row,” he said. “These issues were always hugely sensitive, they remain hugely sensitive, and nobody wants to revisit the atmosphere that surrounded them in the 1980s, in particular.”

A spokesman for the Pro-Life Campaign, meanwhile, denied that the group was telling citizens how they should vote. Rather, said John Smith, the campaign was simply holding a spotlight to the Government’s record on the issues so that voters could decide for themselves. “That’s why we are advertising — so that those of a pro-life position are made aware of some of the positions the Government has taken…

“But we’re not saying, and we didn’t say it in the ad: ‘Don’t vote for Fianna Fáil’ or anything like that.”