Abortion and the law

Ruairi Quinn, Labour TD was quoted saying: ‘Those who can afford Abortion go to England, those who can't suffer the consequences' when speaking on the radio about Abortion laws in Ireland. He continued: “Putting the abortion laws into the Constitution was a mistake at the time, and it is still a mistake now.”

 

The statements were made after he was pressured into voicing his views about Abortion on the Sunday Show on Newstalk in Ireland and said that Abortion having to go to court puts too much pressure on all the parties involved, including the doctors who only strive to offer the best care possible to their patients. However, he was hopeful that Abortion Law in Ireland would be changing in the not too distant future.

 

He also said that he felt that we were living in an “unequal society.”

Quinn thinks that it is inevitable that the law on Abortion will make a move towards becoming more liberal considering that at the moment we are living in a society that is "unequal". He added: “In our unequal society, those that can afford to go and get Abortion in England will be able to do so, and those that can't afford to, will always suffer the consequences,”

 

Recently, the High court has ruled that doctors may switch off the life support keeping a brain dead, 18-week-pregnant mother of two alive. 

 

The woman in her 20's has been brain dead since the 3rd of December but was kept alive against her family's wishes due to the confusion over the law and the status of her unborn child.

Laughing, Mr Quinn also commented on the high and low points of his political career spanning 3 decades and his funniest moment, and said that there were too many to mention

Mr Quinn has retained his seat bar one election in 1981 since 1977 when he was first elected TD to the Dublin South-East constituency.