Brady: I will fight any bid to legislate for abortion

Cardinal Seán Brady has vowed to vigorously oppose any proposals by the Government to legislate for abortion.

The Primate of All Ireland said it was important the Church prepared, with others, to defend the equal right to life of a mother and child against any effort to introduce abortion.

He maintained that Ireland was one of the safest places in the world for expectant mothers.

“The recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights on A, B, & C v Ireland did not oblige the Irish Government to legislate for any form of abortion in Ireland,” he told the Edmund Rice Summer School in Co Waterford.

“I believe any attempt to do so, even by way of a ministerial directive, will be vigorously and comprehensively opposed by many.”

The 14-member expert group on abortion was set up by Health Minister James Reilly last year to examine the implications of a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on Irish abortion laws in A, B, & C v Ireland in Dec 2010.

It ruled that the State had failed to implement existing rights to lawful abortion where a mother’s life was at risk and found the State violated the rights of a woman with cancer who said she was forced to travel abroad to obtain an abortion.

The Government has also been called on to legislate for abortion in special circumstances as dictated by the 20-year-old X case Supreme Court ruling and allow abortion if the life of the mother or unborn child is under threat.

Successive governments have not acted on this.

The Dáil technical group failed in a bid to force the Government to legislate on the X case earlier this year after four women told of their experiences of having to travel for abortion due to fatal foetal abnormalities.