Alban McGuinness Slams Abortion Proposals
20.12.2017
A former leading nationalist politician in Northern Ireland has condemned the extreme abortion proposals made by the OIreachtas Committee on the 8th Amendment. He was also critical of the fact that neither the Committee nor the Citizens’ Assembly sought any input from Northern Ireland.
Alban McGuinness, former SDLP MLA, said the “dystopian” proposals put forward by the committee are reminiscent of Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal that poor children should be killed and sold for meat. But “[u]nlike Dean Swift, these humourless legislators are deadly serious in their extreme recommendations for abortion on demand.”
Mr McGuinness was also critical of the way in which the committee had conducted its meetings, “which heard evidence almost exclusively from pro-abortion advocates,” so that “there was no real debate on the fundamental issue of upholding and preserving the human right to life of the unborn.”
“There is a strong suspicion that, from its very outset, this committee had a pre-determined view in favour of abolishing the 8th Amendment and introducing abortion.”
“In the modern world, properly preoccupied with equality, the 8th Amendment established true equality between mother and baby.
“Now, under these proposals, that Amendment will be repealed (subject to referendum) and the equality that thus far protected the life of both mother and baby will be abolished. The right to life of the baby will be completely abandoned.
“Thus one of the most far-seeing and innovative acts of constitutional equality in the world will be replaced by legislative provisions to provide for the widespread undermining of the human right to life of the unborn.
“These multiple proposals just about fall short of infanticide and make the British 1967 Abortion Act look tame by comparison.”
Criticising the committee, and the Dáil more generally, for ignoring the opinion of people in Northern Ireland (including many Irish citizens), Mr McGuinness says it acted “in partitionist oblivion,” ignoring any shade of northern opinion.
“This is the same body politic that purports to want to unite the Irish people and yet, on such a sensitive and far-reaching issue, no thought was given to inviting any northern viewpoint at all.
"Furthermore, no thought has been given throughout this so-called consultation as to the potential impact that this issue might have on opinion in the north.
“Is it not extraordinary that Dail Eireann, as the guardian of the Irish Constitution, couldn't care less about what the north might feel on this sensitive issue, which will have long-term consequences? Northern opinion was deliberately ignored.
“It is not hard to imagine that many northern nationalists and unionists may well feel an aversion to the prospect of unity in the future with a jurisdiction that will permit abortion on demand.”
The Belfast Telegraph. December 20.