WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU TRUST STEPHEN DONNELLY? The Minister wants us to believe ‘it’ll be all right on the night’; the nuns will be ‘grand’ with women having the care they need in ‘their’ hospital – like abortions. Yeah right! The Minister knows well that the nuns’ commitment to their ethos is embedded in every deal they do, and the set-up they have at St Vincents, means they still own the land for the new hospital which gives them a powerful edge in imposing their ethos. No deal on this basis. THE NATIONAL MATERNITY HOSPITAL MUST BE STATE RUN AND SECULAR. NOTHING LESS.

The committe stage, where we debate amendments to the proposed abortion legislation, is frustrating to say the least. Anti abortionists want to rehash the argument (that they spectacularly lost 2:1 in May). But its also frustrating when some amendments are ruled ‘in’, and others ‘out’ of order. Like one today, from Carol Nolan who wants to bill a woman for an abortion unless she’s dying. The other issue addressed in this video is criminality. 14 years for vasectomy? Of course not, so why would they even consider it for abortion. Criminality has no place in health legislation. We debated this at the Committee today.

Déja vu or what!! There I was on telly this morning, God love me, with Cora Sherlock, anti-Choicer, from the Repeal campaign. They act like our votes didn’t matter! What part ‘YOU LOST’ don’t they understand? But very nastily, they now want to allow doctors the right to refuse to treat women seeking abortion, and to refuse refering the woman on. Another good reason for maximum turnout on the Choice demo Sept 29th.