Trevor Hayes: The only way to stop abortion-on-demand is to vote No
Tomorrow’s referendum will change our society irrevocably. The Government’s extreme proposal for abortion-on-demand will inevitably lead to thousands more unborn children losing their lives annually. It’s simply too extreme, and to prevent this from happening, we have to say No, writes
EVEN at this late stage, many people are still unaware of what the Government’s abortion proposals really entail. The reality of what they plan to introduce is truly frightening.
This referendum is about introducing abortion-on-demand up until 12 weeks, and opening the door to abortion on liberal UK-style grounds much later into pregnancy as well.
The General Scheme of a Bill to Regulate Termination of Pregnancy sets out clearly what Ireland’s abortion laws will look like should the Irish people vote tomorrow to strip unborn children of the only constitutional protection which they have left.
Head 7 of the General Scheme states that for the first three months of pregnancy, abortion will be available for any reason whatsoever.
It is impossible to understand the full significance of this without first taking a moment to consider the development of an unborn child up to this point.
Thanks to advances in science, we can state categorically that after about 21 days, the unborn baby’s heart begins to beat.
After 8 weeks, every organ is present in the baby.
By the 12th week, the unborn child who we are considering aborting is fully formed and undeniably human, with fingers that open and close, and toes which curl.
Many of these vulnerable lives will be lost if unborn babies lose all their constitutional protection and abortion-on-demand is introduced in the Irish healthcare system.
Undecided? Grab the facts.#8thref
— LoveBoth (Official) (@lovebothireland) May 24, 2018
If we repeal the #8thamendment, unborn babies and their mothers will have no protection.
Read the Government's proposal: https://t.co/F5q5ajct18 pic.twitter.com/3EuQkaN22R
Abortions later in pregnancy
Human development does not stop at 12 weeks into pregnancy, and neither does the Government’s planned abortion legislation.
Once more, all you need do to find out what is in store is to examine the General Scheme. Head 4 includes provision for abortion up until viability where there is a risk to the life or health of the mother, a provision which applies to the vaguely-defined category of mental health.
Viability is usually set at around 24 weeks, or six months. Therefore, it will be legal to terminate the life of the unborn child who is just days away from viability.
What is most worrying about this aspect of the proposal is its similarity to the abortion legislation which now exists in the United Kingdom.
Of the 190,406 abortions which took place in England and Wales in 2016, 97% of them were undertaken under Ground C - to protect the “physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.”
And of these 180,794 abortions carried out under Ground C, 99.8% of them were performed because of a risk to the woman’s mental health.
When politicians in the UK voted to legalise abortion in 1967, few believed that the law would be abused to such an extent, or that it would give rise to an abortion culture in which one in five pregnancies ends in abortion.
Millions of lives have been lost as a result, and yet we are told that a proposed law which is virtually identical to that of Britain will not lead to the abuses which constantly occur in Britain, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives annually.
The effect on Irish healthcare and doctors
The Government’s proposals are not only extreme: they are also completely unnecessary. Women in Ireland are entitled to any necessary medical treatment in pregnancy, including terminations of pregnancy where necessary.
As Dr. Mary Holohan, a consultant obstetrician in the Rotunda Hospital, has said, “Ireland’s law fully provides for the small number of cases relating to necessary obstetric interventions. Where it arises, the duty to intervene to save the woman’s life is clear. Under the present law we have
full freedom and support for the requirements of ethical practice.” As a fellow consultant obstetrician, I agree fully with Dr. Holohan.
Our phenomenal record in maternal health shows clearly that this approach works. Ireland consistently ranks as one of the very safest countries in the world for women to give birth in, according to the World Health Organization.
Irish hospitals are safer for pregnant women than those in the UK, the US, the Netherlands or France: all countries with abortion-on-demand.
This proud record is being put at risk by plans to follow the mistakes of other countries. This will not just lead to the ending of countless unborn lives, it will also fundamentally alter our healthcare system. For the first time, that system will not just exist to save lives: it will exist to
end lives too.
The future of our profession
Like many of my colleagues, I became a doctor because I wanted to save lives, not because I wanted to end them.
I became an obstetrician because I wanted to help bring unborn children safely into this world, not because I wanted to ensure that they would never be born.
The reality of what the Government is proposing is there in front of us in black and white. It is not compassion. It is not care. It is the willful destruction of the most vulnerable people in our society: the unborn. It is an extreme proposal that goes way beyond hard cases: it is abortion-on- demand for healthy babies of healthy mothers.
This is why I am voting No tomorrow.
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