JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Irish expert report could lead to British-style abortion system

Monday, 26 November 2012

Irish expert report could lead to British-style abortion system

Mr Justice Sean Ryan, who chaired the expert group

Various Irish media outlets claim to have seen the Irish expert group's report on abortion, due to be published later this week. As I told the media earlier today, according to a leaked copy of the report, the so-called experts recommend that:

"termination of pregnancy should be considered a medical treatment regardless of whether the risk to the woman arises on physical or mental health grounds".

If this principle is followed to its logical conclusion, Ireland will end up with a similar abortion regime to Great Britain. Britain’s Abortion Act 1967 is based on the false premise that there are circumstances in which abortion is a clinically-indicated medical treatment, such that abortionists should be automatically exempt from prosecution under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, under which abortion is a criminal offence. It is no surprise, therefore, that the report calls for the 1861 Act’s provisions on abortion to be removed from Irish law. The Irish people must rise up and demand that the Irish constitution’s ban on abortion be upheld against this report, which is the fruit of the international pro-abortion lobby’s machinations.

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Like SPUC's Facebook Page
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy

About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.