“Any committee that turns a blind eye to such horrific abuses is in no position to lecture Ireland on its laws” – Sherlock
The Pro Life Campaign has said today’s comments by the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) on Ireland’s abortion law show that “fairness and impartiality doesn’t even enter the equation when it comes to their deliberations on this issue.”
The UN HRC described Ireland’s abortion laws as “cruel, inhumane and degrading” for not allowing abortion in situations where the unborn baby has a life-limiting condition. The Committee made its remarks after considering the case of Siobhán Whelan who sought an abortion in Ireland in 2010 following an ultrasound scan at 20 weeks gestation which revealed her baby had a congenital brain malformation.
Responding to the UNHRC’s criticism of Ireland and call for abortion to be introduced, Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign said: “The UNHRC is behaving like the international wing of the Irish abortion lobby. They have taken to attacking Ireland’s pro-life laws every few months but have never, for example, expressed a single word of concern or criticism at the barbaric abortion practices in countries like England and Canada where the ghastly and gruesome practice of denying medical attention to babies born alive after botched abortions is tolerated and routinely happens. Any committee that turns a blind eye to such horrific abuses is in no position to lecture Ireland on its laws.”
Ms Sherlock continued: “The UNHRC is effectively saying that unborn babies with a life limiting condition are worthless and undeserving of any protections in law. I sympathise greatly with the woman at the centre of today’s case and all families who receive a diagnosis that their child has a life-limiting condition. The UN however has no right in the name of human rights to make a value judgment on which lives are valuable and which ones are not. Either we protect every human life or we end up protecting none.
“We like to think of the UN as an honest defender of human rights. The UNHRC is trading on this good name to confer undeserved legitimacy on their own ideological demands. Today’s remarks from the UNHRC is not a court ruling. Ireland is perfectly entitled to determine its own laws in this area and it is outrageous for the Committee to interfere in Irish democracy by ordering us to introduce a procedure which ends human life.”