To mark International Women’s Day, The Labour Party published a new manifesto called Labour. Working for Women.
In it, the party, under Alan Kelly’s leadership, has provided its clearest signal yet that it will seek a radical and extreme liberalisation of the current abortion law.
The manifesto also commits to making peaceful protest against abortion an offence through the pursuit of so-called Exclusion Zones.
This is despite the fact that the Garda Commissioner told the then Minister for Health Simon Harris in September 2019 that there was no evidence to suggest the existence of any threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour directed towards persons utilising abortion services.
The Garda Commissioner also confirmed to the Minister his opinion that existing laws are more than adequate to deal with whatever issues may arise.
But it seems the Labour Party are only interested in the Garda Commissioners advice when he is condemning the existence of the ‘far-right’ in Ireland. For Labour, anything else the Commissioner has to say on public order can be safely ignored it seems.
The new Labour manifesto also commits to retaining telemedicine or the taking of abortion pills at home without the need for a physical consultation with a GP.
This change introduced last March was condemned by pro-life campaigners at the time as a drastic weakening of vital safety protocols.
Labour’s commitment in this regard also comes after it was reported last July that two women died in the UK after they accessed abortion pills through telemedicine services provided for the NHS.
For Alan Kelly’s Labour Party however, continuing to make abortion pills available at home without the requirement for a physical consultation with a GP, it will “remove physical and financial barriers to abortion access.”
This last point about removing ‘financial barriers,’ should cause some concern and questions will have to be asked about precisely what the Party means by this.
For instance, does the Labour Party believe there is any material difference between a ‘financial barrier’ and a ‘socio-economic barrier.’
This is important, because while in 2017 the majority of the Citizens Assembly on the Eighth Amendment (72%) voted to allow abortion up to 22 weeks gestation for ‘Socio-economic’ reasons, this recommendation was subsequently rejected by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment.
Here is what the Final Report of the Committee on the Eighth said on the matter:
“Notwithstanding the difficult and varied circumstances in which pregnant women may find themselves, the Committee is of the opinion that termination of pregnancy after 12 weeks for socio-economic reasons should not be provided for and considers that the distinction drawn by the Citizens’ Assembly as regards gestational limits is therefore unnecessary.”
Incidentally, this decision by the Committee came about despite the best efforts of the two World Health Organisation representatives who attended the Committee on Wednesday, 11 October 2017.
On that day, both WHO representatives strongly pushed for the provision of abortion on socioeconomic grounds at the same time as they argued that requiring authorisation from parents or guardians for children who wished to have an abortion would result in “restrictions” and “poor availability of services.”
If it is the case that the Labour Party sees no meaningful distinction between a financial barrier and a socio-economic one then it is pretty obvious that what it is really attempting do to is to circumvent the position of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Eight Amendment by giving effect to the recommendation of the Citizens Assembly through the back door.
That recommendation let us recall involves allowing for abortion up to 22 weeks on socioeconomic grounds.
The Labour Party manifesto also says the Party will “ban rogue crisis pregnancy agencies.”
Apart from the fact that ‘rogue crisis pregnancy agencies’ is an utterly disingenuous and loaded term, this move would effectively entail that any agency or organisation who deviated in the slightest from state propaganda on abortion would be criminalised.
Presumably this would include any agency that sought to promote the view that abortion hurts women, or perhaps any agency who sought to draw attention to the analysis of worldwide population data suggesting sex-selective abortions have led to at least 23 million fewer girls being born.
What a gift to women and girls the new Labour Party manifesto has shown itself to be.