On Saturday 1 July, Bishop Kevin Doran, chair of the Bishops’ Council for Life, celebrated Mass at Saint Saviour’s Church, Dominick Street, Dublin, before the ‘Rally for Life’.
During his homily, Bishop Doran said, “Pregnancy is, quite literally, a life-giving experience and for the majority of parents, thankfully, it is a happy and a hope-filled time. We know, of course, that pregnancy can also be inconvenient for various reasons, especially if it comes about in the absence of a committed relationship. When an unborn child is experienced as ‘inconvenient’, we either adapt in order to welcome it, or we make arrangements to dispose of it. This is where we come face to face with the truth. A society that seeks to justify abortion inevitably finds itself in conflict with the truth.”
Bishop Doran described the recent review on the operation of the Termination of Pregnancy Act as a good example of how the truth is often the first victim of abortion. He said, “In the first place this was not a review of the Act in itself, but only a review of how it operates. In other words, the Government was not interested in what people thought about abortion. All they wanted was to establish whether the act was effective in what it set out to do, namely ending the lives of unborn babies. It was made clear at the outset that the State had no interest in submissions which would advocate in favour of unborn babies, or indeed in favour of women who are also victims of abortion.”
Responding to calls to remove the three-day waiting period, the Bishop of Elphin said, “The purpose of the three days between the certification by the doctor and the actual abortion, was to provide a window of opportunity for a woman to consider the decision she is about to make and to explore whether she might have other options. According to HSE figures, large numbers of women (27%) do not return after the three days, indicating that over a quarter of women change their minds for one reason or another. The three-day waiting period works, not only to save babies, but to save women from a decision that they may regret for the rest of their lives. The Review published different, lower, figures, coming from a pro-abortion source, and recommends that the three-day waiting period would become purely advisory.”
To read this homily in full, click here.
ENDS
