Restrictions in Protection of Life Bill demeaning to women
The Irish Times, Jul 10, 2013 by Vincent Browne
Who is it that should decide whether her body should be used for the propagation of an unborn child, other than the mother?
Tonight the (almost) all-male parliament will vote to imprison a woman, for up to 14 years, who refuses to give her body to the sustenance of another human being, irrespective of almost all circumstances.
It is irrespective of whether the pregnancy would do serious and irreversible harm to her health for the rest of her life.
It is irrespective of the circumstances whereby she became pregnant, for example, if she had been gang-raped and was distraught at the prospect of bringing to full term the child of one of her rapists.
It is irrespective of whether the woman would be able to cope physically, emotionally and psychologically with having, say, a 10th child. It’s irrespective of the woman’s will.
And those 140 or so TDs who vote for this Bill tonight will vote for a provision (section 18) that makes it unmistakably clear that nothing in the Bill shall prevent a woman having an abortion abroad. Even up the road in Newry, Armagh, or Derry, where abortions are legal, if there is a long-term risk to a woman’s physical health, as distinct from merely her life.
Hypocritical
So what the TDs are voting for is not the protection of unborn life, as the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 hypocritically proclaims, but for restricting access to abortion in this jurisdiction only and in ways that can be shamefully demeaning to women and to those suffering from mental illness.
If it ever transpires that a woman seeks an abortion here because she is so overwrought as to be suicidal, she will be subject to the debasing process of seeking the approval of an obstetrician and two psychiatrists. And if one of these eminences declines to recommend a termination of pregnancy, she may appeal to a review panel of 10 medical practitioners, who may take three days even to assemble, and they will decide. It’s not the woman who will decide, but the medicos, almost certainly a majority of whom will be vastly overpaid, upper middle -class males, a category not renowned for its feminist ardour. At the heart of this is disbelief; that women who indicate suicidal intention because of their pregnancy are likely to be faking it.
Read full article: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/restrictions-in-protection-of-life-bill-demeaning-to-women-1.1458054
