Mags Gargan“We need a proper debate in this country about the needs of families whose babies are terminally ill”
The Pro-Life Campaign has accused the New York-based Centre for Reproductive Rights (CRR) of lacking credibility and acting insensitively, after it filed a case before the UN’s Human Rights Committee alleging that it amounts to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” for Ireland to deny abortion in situations where an unborn baby has a terminal illness.
“It is insensitive and incredibly hurtful to families who have or had babies with life shortening conditions to have to repeatedly listen to the Centre for Reproductive Rights describe their children as ‘unviable’ or ‘incompatible with life’,” said Pro Life Campaign spokesperson Cora Sherlock.
Misleading
“It is also misleading to say that a pregnancy is ‘unviable’ as we can never know for certain the accuracy of the diagnosis, given that there are so many stories of misdiagnosis or children living much longer than expected,” she said.
“We need a proper debate in this country about the needs of families whose babies are terminally ill, not the hijacking of the debate by groups like CRR whose aim is ensuring abortion up to birth without any restrictions.”
The CRR filed the case last Thursday on behalf of a Co. Wexford woman who was told 21 weeks into her pregnancy in 2010 that her foetus had Trisomy 13 or Patau syndrome – a terminal condition that carries a high risk of miscarriage – claiming her human rights were infringed due to the fact that she was unable to access abortion in Ireland.
