Response to UN Ruling
Parents say UN is wrong - it is abortion that is cruel, inhumane and degrading
13 June 2017
Parents whose children have been diagnosed with life-limiting conditions have hit out at what they describe as “UN interference in Ireland’s abortion laws” – adding that the international body was “outdated” in failing to realise that new evidence showed better support and care, not abortion, was the compassionate answer in these difficult situations.
Tracy Harkin of Every Life Counts said that it was appalling to see misinformation being pushed by a once-respected human rights body, who were now referring to babies with severe disabilities as ‘fatal abnormalities’ or ‘incompatible with life’.
“The UN has upended all logic here, since it is abortion that is cruel, inhumane and degrading to both mother and baby, and this abortion push has no place in a human rights organisation or in a compassionate and progressive society,” she said.
“It’s clear that this UN Committee has utterly failed to keep up with progressive, modern medicine or with the research that shows that abortion causes significantly more distress and despair to women in these circumstances,” said Ms Harkin. “They seem totally outdated in their understanding, and neither do they seem to be interested in the facts regarding these conditions – one such fact being that no doctor can say with certainty that baby will die before birth, or know how long baby will live after birth.”
“My own daughter, Kathleen Rose, has Trisomy 13, the condition described in this case as incompatible with life, and she is 10 years old. Would the UN tell her, to her face, that she has no right to life?” asked Ms Harkin. “The truth is that every baby that is diagnosed is alive and kicking and has a right to life, and their parents also have a right to that precious time with baby, which brings love and joy and healing.”
Ms Harkin said that research also showed that 90% of Irish parents continued with their pregnancies after such a diagnosis but the voices and the needs of families were being drowned out in the clamour to legalise abortion.
See our children’s stories here: http://www.everylifecounts.ie/stories/
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