Abortion debate: Anger burns bright in letters to Taoiseach

Enda Kenny has been sent hundreds of letters on the abortion issue, says Juno McEnroe

A candlelight vigil for Savita Halappanavar, who died in a Galway hospital in October.

THE Taoiseach has been compared to dictators Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot in correspondence among hundreds of letters pleading with him and the Government not to introduce abortion legislation.

Letters from members of the public, medical professionals, clergymen, academics, and politicians, among others, argue for and against limited abortion laws in the wake of the death of Indian woman Savita Halappanavar.

Both anti-abortion and pro-choice voters pledge they will abandon Fine Gael at the next general election, while others say Enda Kenny will “rot in hell” if his Government fails to introduce legislation on abortion.

The letters to Mr Kenny and his ministers, released to the Irish Examiner under freedom of information requests, show the deep-rooted anger after the death of Mrs Halappanavar in October and also include letters sent in recent months.

Many of the letters and emails are from people based abroad, in Europe and further afield in Canada, the US, and Asia.

One Irishwoman living abroad tells Mr Kenny that the Catholic Church has “always been run by men”. Criticising the laws protecting pregnant woman in Ireland and how Mrs Halappanavar was treated by doctors, she adds: “It sickens me to see all the promotional material related to ‘the Gathering’ and to think that if I do come home pregnant and take part I may end up dead... Savita had a heartbeat and I do too.”

Another female writer warns Mr Kenny: “Which multi-national enterprise would send its female employees (or the wives of employees) to the Republic of Ireland now??”

A journalist also tells the Taoiseach that this is the seventh government since the X case and that a “new generation has come and gone” since the Supreme Court case of 1992.

One angry female writer says Mr Kenny presides over a “backward country” and calls him “Hitler”, demanding a full inquiry into the Indian national’s death. She calls Mr Kenny and Health Minister James Reilly “male ignorant chauvinistic pigs”, and adds: “It took the life of beautiful Savita to get you assholes to act! May you rot in hell!”

Others attach videos and images to their emails condemning moves to legislate for abortion.

One angry priest warns: “No person can vote for this law or for any person or party that supports it without committing a grave evil. The blood of the children who will be killed will be on your hands. Those who support this act will be as guilty as those who supported Hitler or Stalin.”

A nurse also outlines to Mr Kenny by letter, in graphic detail, how she helped carry out abortions in London.

One politician, who is not named, warns Mr Kenny that elected representatives “will be judged” by voters on the issue.

Many of the hundreds of letter writers arguing for and against abortion claim to be Fine Gael voters but threaten to remove support for the party in the correspondence.

Questions are also raised about the inquiry into the death of Mrs Halappanavar and members appointed to it. Others say the untimely death of the 31-year-old dentist should not be used as an “excuse” to introduce abortion in Ireland.

Many writers express outrage that legislation has not been introduced to prevent a tragedy like her death happening again and declare that the inquiry into her death is a “whitewash” Some letters to Mr Kenny and coalition ministers are critical of the Halappanavars, racist, and critical of comments by Indian authorities in the wake of her death.

One irate mother, threatening to chain herself and her two children to the railings of Leinster House, says: “Foreigners cannot ever tell my Government what to do!”

Elsewhere, Mr Kenny is told of one woman’s personal story of having to go to full term with a baby which had no brain. He is told how the mother “went through with the birth and watched as her child was born and died as the umbilical cord was cut”. The Government has ruled out legislating for abortion for fatal foetal abnormalities.

The Taoiseach is also told by a nurse how she has been involved in abortions in Britain and asked to put aborted foetuses in newspapers and into incinerators.

An anti-abortion writer tells him that legislating for abortion is equivalent to putting himself “as judge and jury over the unborn person... and cast a death sentence not only on the unborn individual but on his/her countless descendents”.

However, one concerned woman tells Mr Kenny to legislate for abortion to save women’s lives. She says she has a sister, six months pregnant, under the care of the Galway hospital where Mrs Halappanavar died when doctors refused to terminate her pregnancy.

The woman pleads: “I do not accept that we need to live another minute knowing that she too could be left begging for her life in that, or any other hospital in the State.”

One angry writer questions how Mr Kenny can sleep at night following the death of Mrs Halappanavar while the law remains unchanged. “Do dead pregnant women count for nothing in this backward gombeen ridden land? Shame on you.”

An anti-abortion clergywoman encourages Mr Kenny and his Government to follow the X case Supreme Court ruling and legislate for abortion where it saves a mother’s life.

ONE woman compares the situation of terminations in Ireland with theocracies such as Saudi Arabia. Pushing Mr Kenny to legislate for abortion in limited cases, she says: “I have seen women forced to carry dead babies for months to full term. These are appalling things to happen in a supposedly progressive country.”

Another woman argues that Mr Kenny and other ministers “murdered Savita Halappanavar through inaction” and that the Government should resign.

One state employee working for the health sector in the European Commission writes to Mr Kenny saying he was embarrassed when colleagues inquired why Mrs Halappanavar had died after a nurse told her a termination could not go ahead as Ireland was a “Catholic country”.

Some correspondence is also addressed to his staff, who handle the letters. Several are also from couples who lost babies when the mother was pregnant.

Fine Gael voters lash out at the Government’s failure to legislate for abortion immediately, with one writer saying: “If you don’t legislate for abortion now, it will be your fault if the rest of the world continues to view the Irish as a bunch of uncouth barbarians.”

One group from the University of California go as far as to call for a “boycott on all travel to the Republic of Ireland until suitable legislation” to implement the X case ruling is passed.

Other extreme views, though, are shared with Mr Kenny. One anti-abortion writer, sending an email to all TDs including Mr Kenny, says: “Ask yourself this deputy, if that was your child about to be chopped to death in extreme agony would you agree? Your child about to be sucked out and dumped into a bin bag...”

Others warn Mr Kenny not to be remembered at the Taoiseach who introduced abortion to Ireland. Another compares Mr Kenny’s actions to those dictators: “If you introduce abortion into Ireland you could be responsible for killing more people than Hitler/Stalin and Pol Pot etc.”

Others warn he will be compared to Oliver Cromwell and that taxpayers should not fund “baby murder clinics”.

Others say Fine Gael is doing a U-turn on abortion after promises made in the general election.

One writer to Mr Kenny, ministers, and TDs says: “You must know that you are cutting your own throats politically, I will never trust or vote for Fine Gael again, along with my friends and family.”

One letter details a Mass offered in Mr Kenny’s name while others compare him to Herod, the biblical king who ordered the slaughter of infants.

European Affairs Minister Lucinda Creighton is warned in correspondence that if legislation is passed, it will be challenged in the courts and that legalising for abortion is tantamount to murder.

The letters released under FoI were sent to Mr Kenny, his ministers, and TDs between October last year and June this year, and were released to the Irish Examiner over the weekend.