Outrage in Ireland: Three Thousand Rally for Child "Induced" at 25 Weeks Under New Abortion Law

Hillary White : Aug 28, 2014
LifeSiteNews

"This case broke every rule of medicine. Firstly, the Irish Family Planning Association failed to adequately address this woman's mental health status when she twice expressed suicidal ideation to them; secondly, abortion was prescribed as a treatment for her suicidality, when every doctor knows there is no evidence for this; and thirdly, an obstetrician was obliged to forcibly deliver a healthy baby at 25 weeks, where no medical basis existed." -Dr. Eoghan de Faoite

(Dublin, Ireland)—Three thousand rallied in Dublin Monday, calling for the overturning of the Irish coalition government's new abortion law that has resulted in the deliberate premature delivery of a 25 week-old infant, named "Baby Hope," who is now struggling for survival in a Dublin hospital. (Photo: Courtesy of All Ireland Rally for Life/via LifeSiteNews)

The law, passed last summer, allows direct abortion and early induction through all nine months of gestation if doctors determine that the mother's life is at risk, even if the risk is only a claim of suicidal intentions.

Pro-life objectors predicted that the bill would put doctors in such situations. One of the lead voices against the bill, The Life Institute's Niamh Ui Bhriain, said Monday's rally in Dublin that if Prime Minister Enda Kenny "has a conscience, I hope he is ashamed of what his law has deliberately inflicted on that tiny little baby boy, gasping to take a breath."

"His abortion law has fallen at the very first hurdle, and Mr. Kenny now needs to repeal this cruel and unworkable abortion act," she told the crowd at the Vigil for Hope, the latest in a series of rallies this month.

The pro-life campaign group Youth Defence said they will be delivering 5,000 Get Well Cards for the baby to the Department of Health next week to bring the bill's contradictions to the attention of legislators.

Dr. Eoghan de Faoite, one of the organizers, pointed out that the woman in the Baby Hope case, who has not been named, was under the care of the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA), one of the main supporters of the bill and Ireland's busiest abortion lobby groups. De Faoite said that her case had been "mismanaged" and was the "antithesis of obstetrical care."

"This case broke every rule of medicine," he said. "Firstly, the IFPA failed to adequately address this woman's mental health status when she twice expressed suicidal ideation to them; secondly, abortion was prescribed as a treatment for her suicidality, when every doctor knows there is no evidence for this; and thirdly, an obstetrician was obliged to forcibly deliver a healthy baby at 25 weeks, where no medical basis existed."

"Vulnerable women expressing suicidal thoughts need to be given the correct treatment of support, psychotherapy and medication where needed," he added. "This is how suicidality is treated. However Fine Gael's legislation forces doctors to abandon evidence-based medicine and perform abortions on request, throughout all nine months of pregnancy."

The child's mother, who has not been identified, is reported to have been under the care of the Irish Family Planning Association, one of the country's busiest abortion lobby groups, and to have threatened suicide if she did not get a "termination." The Health Service Executive has said there will be an internal review to "end any inaccurate commentary surrounding this matter currently." The media has reported that the child has been "placed in care."

The Irish Times reported that "a panel of two psychiatrists and one obstetrician agreed she was suicidal" but that since the child was found to be healthy, it would only be induced early, not killed directly. The Times said the woman protested and went "on thirst and hunger strike" until a court order was obtained to forcibly rehydrate her.

"It was agreed that as the fetus was viable it should be delivered by Caesarian section. Though she initially refused this option, she subsequently agreed to it," the Times report says. (Photo via LifeSiteNews)

The Guardian picked up the story and, under the headline "Woman denied abortion in Ireland ‘became pregnant after rape,'" quoted "a friend" of the mother who said she had been "denied an abortion." The Guardian, a leading media voice of Britain's abortion lobby, said the woman was "forced to give birth by caesarean section after being denied an abortion in Ireland."

At the same time, the hard core of Ireland's abortion lobby has criticized the actions of doctors to try to save the child's life, saying he should have been killed by direct abortion earlier in the pregnancy. The Guardian quoted Doctors for Choice, who said, "If a young rape victim, certified as requiring an abortion due to the risk of suicide, cannot access abortion services, then the legislation and its implementation are clearly fatally flawed." The group said the case demonstrates the need to repeal the Irish constitution's pro-life amendment so that such children can simply be aborted without hesitation.

The Times quoted the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI), who also called for the constitutional clause to be removed. "No civilized society can stand over a law which sees a woman lose her bodily autonomy once pregnant. No more desperate women and girls should have to resort to the courts here and in the EU. The time for action is now," the group's statement said.