Ireland’s abortion rate increased last year

 

A total of 6,577 women had an abortion in Ireland in 2020, according to a report presented today by the Department of Health. That is slightly down on the figure of 6,666 in 2019, but the ratio (number of abortions per live births) is up, because fewer women became pregnant last year, so it is very bad news.

As 194 women with an Irish address also had an abortion in England in 2020, the total recorded number for last year is 6,771.

In terms of absolute numbers there was no substantial difference (-1.3%) compared to 2019, when 6,666 women had an abortion in Ireland and 375 went England.

But if we look at the number of recorded pregnancies, in 2020 the number of them that ended in abortion was higher than the previous year.

As there were 55,959 live births in Ireland in 2020, the abortion ratio, which is calculated per 1,000 live births, is 120.9. It was 117.7 in 2019. We would have hoped that lockdown might have caused a substantial fall in both the number and rate of abortions, but that did not happen.

The abortion rate, calculated per 1,000 women aged 15-44, was 6.6 in 2020 and 6.9 in 2019.

It is interesting to understand how the lockdown influenced conceptions, abortions and births.

Between January and April 2020, 2,554 abortions were performed in Ireland. This is a 20% increase compared to the same period in 2019 (2,161).

Those babies were all conceived before the lockdown. From May to December 2020, 3,965 terminations of life were carried out, 10.6% less than the previous year.

So, the number of abortions grew until the pandemic began and then declined during the lockdown. Part of this is surely due to the fact that fewer casual and unplanned pregnancies happened during these months.

All Irish MEPs vote in favour of declaring abortion a ‘right’

 

A new report that presents abortion as a ‘human right’ and would undermine conscientious objection was approved by the European Parliament last week. Every Irish MEP voted in favour of it. The report does not have the force of law behind it, but it is all part of an effort to shift the EU in an ever more pro-abortion direction, to make a ‘right’ to abortion a ‘European value’.

The Matić report is a long document covering sexual health and so-called “reproductive rights”, which include abortion, sterilisation, prenatal screening, etc. It is named after the Croatian MEP Predrag Fred Matić, from the Socialists and Democrats Group, who acted as a Rapporteur.

The report falsely presents abortion as a right but no international treaty recognises a “right to abortion” and the European Court of Human Rights has held that a woman’s right to privacy does not imply a right to abortion.

The resolution approved by the European Parliament last week calls for the removal of all barriers to access abortion, and these barriers would include conscientious objection of healthcare professionals.

It deceitfully claims that the denial of abortion on grounds of religion or conscience “endangers women’s lives and rights” and it also “hinders access to prenatal screening”. We know that prenatal screening is often used to select and abort children carrying a disability, such as Down Syndrome.

The typical language and concepts of the most radical activists appears in the Matić report. Conscientious objection, which is recognised and protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, is presented in the Matić report as “refusal of medical care”.

Another example of its radical ideology is in the use of ambiguous expressions such as “pregnant people” or “pregnant person”, rather than “pregnant women”. This attempt to employ so-called “inclusive language” as a matter of fact erases women and their absolutely unique role in bringing a child into the world.

Critics of this extremely ideological document have highlighted that it is an affront the sovereignty of the EU Member States. The fields of health and education belong to the Member States and this document overreaches the competences of the European Union.

Several European bodies have acknowledged that the power to legislate on abortion and health matters lie with the different States. The European Union cannot impose the “right to abortion” on its members and this is particularly significant as Malta, for instance, is an EU state and has resisted international pressure to liberalise its abortion laws so far.

The Matić report has no binding legal value but such resolutions are often used by member states to introduce and legitimise changes in their national legislation.  They are also used by activists to strengthen their positions in court cases or in political campaigns. While lacking legal authority, such documents can still have a profound impact in national and international parliaments and courts. A similar report was rejected in 2013.

This time it has found support from all the left parties in the EU parliament, but also from significant sectors of the centrist European Popular Party, of which Fine Gael is a member, and from the Renew group, which includes Fianna Fail.

Bishop Kevin Doran has commented on Twitter: “Very disappointing to see the every Irish MEP voted today against the right to freedom of conscience which is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in favour of the non-existent human right to abortion. God bless our healthcare professionals.”

On the same day when the Matić report was approved, an attempt to discredit pro-life organisations was rejected. To mark the 25^th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development in Nairobi, a resolution was approved by the EU parliament.

An amendment to this resolution, presented by the Left Group but rejected by the parliament, expressed concern that important international pro-life organisations were included in the EU transparency register and “authorised to work openly with public institutions for the decline of women’s rights, and sexual and reproductive health rights”.

Catholic pupils now being bullied in schools

 

Children who are practising Catholics are being targeted for bullying in school, according to the director of Dublin City University’s Anti-Bullying Centre. They are now a minority to be protected.

Professor James O’Higgins Norman was speaking last week at the Oireachtas Committee on Education, about the topic of school bullying and the impact on mental health.

Addressing the issue of Catholic children being bullied in mainly Catholic schools, he said: “We are in a particular place in our society now, we have become pluralist, things have changed, and it is no surprise that people who practise religion, and maybe practise the Catholic religion, are increasingly in the minority, especially young children and teenagers in school. So, one of the studies we have done recently has shown a concern among religion teachers about what they are observing among students who are practicing Catholics and are being targeted for that, more than a concern about kids who are not practicing a religion.” 

Professor O’Higgins Norman was referring to a study, to be published at the end of the summer, and authored by two members of the DCU’s Anty-Bullying Centre: Amalee Meehan and Derek Laffan.

The research, entitled “Inclusive Religious Education: The Voices of Religious Education Teachers in Post-Primary Schools in Ireland: Identity, bullying, and inclusion”, focuses on students aged from 11 to 16 and found that religion teachers have concerns about those who practice religion, as they would be targeted for bullying more than those who do not practice.

“15 or 20 years ago we were talking about homophobic bullying and that was a focus of bullying in school, it was a concern for anyone, and now today here we are talking about the possibility that children who practice a religion might be the ones who have been targeted for bullying”, Professor O’Higgins Norman told the Oireachtas Committee.

He explained that the outcome of the study agrees with similar research conducted internationally. This research suggests that when a particular worldview loses its dominant position, those who are still following that worldview would be seen as old-fashioned, as out of the mainstream culture and they would targeted more by others. This is happening in Ireland with regard to the Catholic religion, according to Prof. O’Higgins Norman. Those who are still practising, a minority, stand out and are bullied for being different.

During the hearing, Senator Ronan Mullen asked Prof. O’Higgins Norman whether a hegemonic media culture hostile to religion could be part of the problem.

Prof. O’Higgins Norman agreed with this suggestion. He said: “The predominant peer culture among children and adolescents in schools is influenced by their family, their parents, wider media so on, and in our current context, those who are going against the grain or standing out, they will of course then be more likely to be targets for bullying, so well if that’s for religious reasons or for other reasons.”

DCU’s Anti-Bullying Centre recommended raising awareness “of the vulnerability of students based on identity, for example Catholics, LGBTQ+, Ethnicity, etc.” This is surely the first time that practising Catholics are considered a minority to be protected. A sign of how much the mainstream culture has changed in Ireland, and not for the better.

More Irish opting for eugenic abortion

 

The number of abortions in England and Wales hit a record high last year, and the number of Irish women travelling there to abort unborn children with Down Syndrome and other abnormalities has also increased, in line with growing acceptance of eugenics across the Western world.

In 2020, 209,917 women had an abortion in England and Wales. This was despite the extended lockdown. This is the highest number since the Abortion Act was introduced and it also represents the highest rate ever (18.2 per 1,000 women of fertile age).  Scotland also registered the highest historical rate last year.

The number of aborted babies is even higher than those figures as some women were expecting more than one baby.

194 women listed as resident in Ireland had an abortion in England in 2020, a 48pc drop from 2019, when Ireland’s liberal abortion law went into operation. Many went to England because the foetus had non-fatal disabilities and, after 12 weeks of gestation, it cannot be legally killed in Ireland for this reason. Many diagnoses of disabilities are made after 12 weeks.

In spite of the decline in numbers travelling to England, the number of Irish babies with Down Syndrome aborted there went from 17 in 2018, to 27 in 2019 reaching 35 last year.  Other conditions included three babies with spina bifida, one with cleft lip and palate.

The IFPA, together with other campaigners, want abortion for non-fatal abnormalities to happen in Ireland too.

The increasing number of Irish women opting to abort children with Down Syndrome could be due to more women availing of screening programmes and also greater social acceptability for what amounts to eugenics.

The number of English women opting to abort babies with Down Syndrome also increased to 693, a rise of 6pc from 2019, although this may be an underestimate.

The abortion rate in England and Wales continues to decline for girls age under 18, going from 16.5 to 6.9 per 1,000 between 2010 and 2020. This is a general trend in Western countries. But the rate for all other age groups has increased in the last 10 years.

In 2020, more than half of women over 30 undergoing abortion had one or more terminations before. Repeat abortions are now more and more common in the UK.

81pc of women who had terminations in England and Wales in 2020 were single. 51pc were single with a partner. This proportion has remained fairly constant in the last decade.

The report gives an idea of how the Covid pandemic impacted on the phenomenon of abortion.

In the first three months of 2020, before lockdown, the number of women undergoing abortion in England and Wales rose by 4.1pc compared to the first quarter of the previous year. After a spike in April (+28.7pc), just after lockdown was imposed, the rest of the year saw no substantial difference when compared to the previous one.

With regard to the 194 Irish women who travelled to England for abortions in 2020, 101 did so in the first half of the year and 93 in the second half when it was much more difficult to travel.

Another result of Covid restrictions can be seen in selective terminations, which is when only one child in a multiple pregnancy is killed. In England they decreased from 126 in 2019 to 65 in 2020. They generally happen after an IVF treatment, when multiple embryos are produced artificially, then moved into the womb and eventually selected if the couple do not want as many as have survived. This decline in 2020 is due to fewer IVF treatments happening during the pandemic.

Why Europe needs a common day of rest

 

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Sunday was considered a day of rest. But now, like every other day of the week, it has basically been captured by the demands of commerce. So there is no longer a communal day of rest in a lot of countries. This needs to change. There needs to be a European weekly common day of rest, together with the right to disconnect from work, according to a campaign group called the European Sunday Alliance.

The group held an online conference last week, which saw the participation of MEPs from different European parties, and also a representative of the European Commission.

A healthy balance between private life and working time is essential for families, particularly during these difficult times, says the Alliance.

They argue that a work-free Sunday has become even more relevant during the pandemic, when most people work remotely. With more time spent in the house working hours have also extended and now it is more and more difficult to separate work duties from family time. Many employers expect job commitment during the evenings and even the weekends.

A recent report of the Committee On Employment and Social Affairs of the European Parliament notes that “digitalisation has brought many advantages to employers and workers, but also disadvantages, because it can intensify work, extend working hours and increase the unpredictability of working hours, blurring the boundaries between work and private life”

All the politicians taking part agreed with the need to have a common weekly day of rest but had different opinions though on what is the best policy to implement this.

In January, the European Parliament called on the European Commission “to propose a law that enables those who work digitally to disconnect outside their working hours. It should also establish minimum requirements for remote working and clarity working conditions, hours and rest periods”.

A right to disconnect means the possibility to separate, on a regular basis, family or leisure time from working hours. This is beneficial not only to the workers but, ultimately, also to society at large. During a day of rest we can spend more time with others, engaging in social activities, volunteering, sport, faith-related activities, travels, holidays, etc.

In most  European countries, Sunday is traditionally the day of rest from work. This is the heritage of the Christian tradition. Precisely 1,700 years ago, the Emperor Constantine decreed Sunday to be a day of rest protected by law. Nonetheless, many countries, including Ireland, allow businesses to run seven days a week. This has a profound impact on workers and their families.

The European Sunday Alliance is a network of trade unions, religious bodies and civil society organisations that want to raise awareness of the importance and value of a weekly day free from work. They also, ask for legislation at EU and Member States levels to be “more protective of the health, safety, dignity of everyone and should more attentively promote the reconciliation of professional and family life”.

Notably, there were no Irish speakers. This is simply not an issue in Ireland. It should be.

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