Bishop concerned at abortion referendum delay

The Bishop of Killala, Dr Thomas Finnegan, has expressed concern about the delay in the holding of an abortion referendum.

In a pastoral letter published at the weekend, he said abortion was "the only form of capital punishment allowed by the Irish courts".

He said next month the Government would be holding a referendum to remove the death penalty from the Constitution. He heartily agreed with that decision.

It was not, however, an urgent matter, as there had been no executions in the State for over 40 years. A referendum on the right to life of the unborn child had "more immediate urgency".

He said: "Ten thousand submissions were made to the Interdepartmental Working Group on the Government's Green Paper on Abortion. Out of these, less than 50 supported the legalising of abortion; the others, 9,950, supported the holding of a referendum."

Abortion was the fundamental human rights issue of today. It was not just a private issue but touched on whether we saw the unborn child as deserving of inclusion and protection in the human community, he said.

"But equally importantly it is about what kind of care we want to provide for mothers in difficult circumstances. It challenges all of us to build the kind of society where no woman feels that her only or best choice is to end the life of her child.

"We need to ensure that those who feel that abortion is the only way out of a difficult situation are offered a truly life-giving choice."

People should do anything practical they could to support those in crisis pregnancy. They should also begin to "express quietly" to those they know, including politicians and legislators, their opposition to legalised abortion and their desire for a constitutional amendment which would do two things: (1) protect the right to life of the unborn child; and (2) recognise that an expectant mother must receive whatever medical treatment is necessary even when that treatment has a side-effect which puts her unborn child at risk.

Abortion was "the direct, intentional killing of the unborn child". It was not about "the necessary medical treatment of the mother which may result in the unintended death of the baby".

He described the Supreme Court decision in the 1992 X case to allow a teenage girl to have an abortion because of the risk of suicide as "seriously flawed". It violated natural moral law and was "totally contrary to the Irish Constitution".

In the 1997 C case, the courts sanctioned another young woman's abortion, based on the X case, he said. Both cases illustrated clearly "how defenceless we were, and how helpless future generations can be as unborn children".