Seanad debates

Wednesday, 10 July 2019

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Rónán MullenRónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

"I think she would like to have the baby in the same way she would like to have a nice doll." Those were the chilling words used by Ms Justice Nathalie Lieven in a British court recently justifying her decision to force a mentally disabled woman to abort her late-term child of 22 weeks in the womb in violation of her wishes and indeed the wishes of her mother, her legal advisers and a social worker. Her mother was willing to care for the child. Thankfully, that decision was overturned on appeal but Ms Justice Lieven, who had been an advocate for bodies supporting abortion prior to her life on the Bench, described the Northern Irish law, which protects mothers' lives and unborn children, as torture. I would encourage Senator Ardagh, respectfully, in light of that very recent chilling example of what the British law can amount to, to think about whether it is a matter of sweetness that the British Parliament should threaten to impose an extreme abortion law on Northern Ireland.It is neither patriotic nor wise to be happy about the British Parliament imposing or threatening to impose any laws, especially on socially sensitive areas in a jurisdiction such as Northern Ireland. I thought we had moved beyond that kind of oppressive majoritarian thinking.

The issue that I wanted to raise today is good news.

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