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AS THE PROTECTION of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 moves to Committee Stage, Opposition TDs have tabled 89 amendments to the proposed legislation.
Although many of that number are technical changes involving just one word, others – if accepted – could lead to fundamental differences in how the final Act will look.
During committee stage, politicians will vote on each individual amendment, but also on whether each individual section should actually be included in the bill. A number of TDs who have voiced opposition to the planned legislation have said they will vote in favour of it tonight in order for it to move to this stage, where amendments can be considered.
Tipperary deputy Seamus Healy has put forward the lion’s share of the amendments as all the Technical Group’s proposals carry his name.
Among its ideas are further sections to allow for legal terminations in the cases of ‘inevitable miscarriages’ and ‘fatal foetal abnormalities’.
Amendment 14 outlines the proposed inclusion of “inevitable miscarriage” as grounds for “medical treatment lawful under this act”. It reads:
It shall be lawful to carry out a medical procedure in respect of a pregnant woman in the course of which, or as a result of which, a pregnancy is ended, where—…subject to section 19, a medical practitioner, having examined the pregnant woman, has certified that an inevitable miscarriage is taking place.
Last October, Savita Halappanavar was deemed to be undergoing an inevitable miscarriage. It lasted about three days, during which time she requested a termination but it was denied. A report into her death found “apparent over-emphasis on the need not to intervene until the foetal heart stopped together with an under-emphasis on the need to focus appropriate attention on monitoring for and managing the risk of infection and sepsis in the mother”.
Healy also tabled a cross-party group’s amendment which would allow terminations for medical reasons be performed in Irish hospitals. Drafted by a number of abortion law experts, the change could see more than 1,000 women per year treated in Ireland instead of travelling abroad for terminations.
The Technical Group of smaller party TDs and Independents would also like to see a medical practitioner who has previously refused to perform an abortion on the grounds of conscientious objection or expressed a public opinion in general opposition to abortion as a treatment option to be precluded from any review panel.
Suicide clause and representation for the unborn
On the controversial and divisive suicide clause, Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher has proposed an additional five lines to the section. His party would like to see another line inserted to ensure that in a case where a woman is suicidal and the unborn is viable outside the womb, then every effort is made to sustain its life after delivery.
The party – which has given its members a free vote on the issue – also tabled a potential 9.7 which would see that “every attempt” is made to explore alternatives to carry out a termination or early delivery, including counselling and support.
Another Fianna Fáil amendment calls for an advocate for the unborn during medical review proceedings. Under the amendment, he or she would be nominated by the Attorney General and would be entitled to review all documents pertaining to the patient but would not be allowed cross-examine her.
In the final proposed amendment, Seamus Healy has called for any threat, harassment, endangerment and false imprisonment carried out against a woman as a result of her having sought a medical treatment under this Act to be punished by the court, which should take such conduct into account as an aggravating factor in determining any sentence to be imposed on him or her for the offence.
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Well ‘republicans’, and AAAPBP what now? I thought the Special Criminal Court was a fascist institution but this guy only gets 7 years for trying to murder dozens of people he should have got life.
Maybe it’s not the evil institution you think it is?
Ffsake they even said:
“Now you were very bold but if you super promise not to associate with other murdering terrorist sc&m we will make it 5 years then with automatic remission you get three and a half years for supplying bombs that could have produced 3-4 Omagh bombings and killed 100+ people if deployed the right way”
Then he insults the court by refusing to agree to avoid people he’s meant to avoid anyway.
When will Irish courts learn PLEADING GUILTY IS NOT THE SAME AS FEELING REMORSE it’s just a tactic to get you to go easy on them and you always fall for it.
@Ryan Carroll:
What in your deluded mind do you imagine is the AAA-PBP connection to this incident?
They oppose the special criminal court portraying it as if it’s our version of a GITMO Tribunal when it’s the exact same as any other Irish court but for the lack of jury:
•Weak
•Actively pro defendant instead of objective going needlessly out of its way to go easy on the accused
•Rarely gives the maximum sentence
•Allows minor technicalness to become more important than the actual guilt or innocence of the accused
So like with every other policy area, real life experience shows that the characature they portray doesn’t exist
@Ryan Carroll:
So in other words there is precisely NO connection between the AAA and dissident Republicanism.
@Ryan Carroll:
Or are the U.N also connected to dissident Republicanism in your mind because they too object to the Special Criminal Court?
“The human rights and constitutional implications of the Special Criminal Court must also be analysed. The court has been criticised by the UN Human Rights Commission has highlighting Ireland’s profligate use of the Special Criminal Court as a concerning development, in particular noting its potential damaging effect on the right to a fair trial under Article 14 ICCPR.”
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/special-criminal-court-2595467-Feb2016/
You have a talent for two things only it seems:
•Responding to arguments people didn’t make
•Cut n paste instead of constructing your own tailored arguments
Potential damage indeed.
No cited cases of abuse or miscarriage of justice
A review of our emergency powers and special courts was made a few years ago, some things recommended that should have been done were not (like a time limit of state of emergency), some were (like prohibition of capital punishment even during a state of emergency), the SCC review found it behaves like any other court.
Nobody need worry about you getting rid of it though as you’ll never be anywhere near having the power to do so, since you prefer to sit on the sidelines and talk. We could have a govt with far more progressive policies right now if you the Indos SF and Lab had offered FF a confidence and supply deal I happen to know you’d have been pushing on an open door with many policies universal healthcare, maintenance of free college, updated labour laws. But you’re all talk
You’re attacking a straw man (I said AAAPBP were involved in the bombing) because you don’t have the capacity to respond to a more nuanced argument (what I was actually saying: that they want rid of the SCC but cases like this prove the courts not extreme at all it’s just as soft as the rest)
@Ryan Carroll:
And this gem:
T”hey oppose the special criminal court ……. when it’s the exact same as any other Irish court but for the lack of jury”
A bit like saying. It’s the exact same as any other bomb except it’s nuclear.
Still what can we expect from someone who believes that a government led by FF will have “progressive policies”?
And again. Just to be sure you’ve gotten the message into your little mind.
There is precisely NO connection between the AAA and dissident Republicanism
I never said there was
You look absolutely ridiculous hysterically and repeatedly responding to something I never said. For the third time I said they both oppose the court
They do t have a jury because organised crime and terrorists used to threaten them (and their families) to get the verdict they wanted. There’s the same rules of evidence (with one exception never used) , same burden of proof etc etc
This is what I keep saying about you being locked in an ideological cage. If someone’s not for 1000% everything you want then NOTHING they do can be progressive. Ever hear the saying never let the perfect be the enemy of the good. FF introduced free primary and secondary school, medical cards, free travel, most of the welfare system, the entire college grant system but for the most recent changes, almost doubled pensions and where did nearly all our labour and anti discrimination laws come from? Not labour who are more right wing in practice than FG Burton and Quinn proved that. Introduced the minimum wage over IBECs hysterical objections saying it would cost thousands of jobs.
But none of that matters because it’s not full blown utopian socialism. That’s why you’re in an ideological cage and why your party will never accomplish anything because you want everything or nothing and don’t think increments or phased improvements are worth it but a minimum wage or medical card made a big difference to REAL PEOPLE in the real world while your kind were off in theoryland
Oh you utter tool tell me you’re not real you could not be that dim you have to be a troll winding me up
I said that IN BRACKETS INDICATING IT WAS A STRAWMAN ARGUMENT YOU WERE REPLYIBG TO BUT I DIDNT SAY!
Jesus I hope you’re not a real person tell me you’re a troll
@Ryan Carroll:
Let me quote you exactly from above:
“(I said AAAPBP were involved in the bombing)”
Now retract immediately and apologize. There’s a good lad.
And stop shouting. It just makes you look like a complete loon.
Read the two set up words before that bracket it tells you what the portion in brackets is referring to, your straw man argument
I’m gonna ignore you now. You are either a troll in which case why feed you or you’re so ACTUALLY stupid you can’t grasp basic conversation like the brackets issue
Either way, there’s no point
@Ryan Carroll:
Jog on FF fanboy. And don’t introduce the AAA into articles about dissident Republicanism in future.
@Patches O Houlihan: Whereas you achieve that in lower case, well done.
@CeannairBlue:
I achieved what I set out to achieve. That is to demonstrate that there is no precisely connection between the AAA and dissident Republicanism despite Ryan’s and Eye-c-u’s insinuations.
@Patches O Houlihan: You get more like a parody of Dave Spart in Private Eye each day. And that’s satire to start with.
You see he’s still replying to an argument (AAA is connected to terrorists) that nobody made while ignoring the actual argument that was being made
Despite it being clarified six times that this argument wasn’t being made he’s still replying to it. I have to assume he’s a troll or mentally ill rather than just badly informed because you can be uninformed but it wouldn’t explain why you keep responding to something nobody said even when it’s been repeatedly clarified they weren’t saying that
So if that’s the case there’s no point discussing anything when someone’s not rational, it won’t enlighten anyone reading this. If he’s a troll…what a waste of someone’s time. Why spend your time basically spamming a news site even to kill time on public transport or something it’s a waste. Either way there’s no point. It has to be one or the other, psychological issue or troll . I’ve seen some nutters in my time (I’ve tried to have rational talk with youth defence which didn’t end well) but nobody could be that irrational it’s impossible
@Ryan Carroll:
And again Ryan. If you attempt to insinuate there is any connection between the AAA and dissident Republicanism I will firmly slap you down. The easiest option is not to introduce the AAA into articles that have precisely nothing to do with us.
But you didn’t slap him down Wally, you made yourself look like a lunatic yet again.
@Ryan Carroll: The Omagh bomb was 230 kilograms (510 lb) of fertiliser-based explosives. This is 1.6 kilos of commercial explosive.
Hyperbole much?
TDs support dissident Republican in court case
FOUR TDs attended a court hearing in support of a dissident Republican who had been convicted of causing criminal damage by daubing an anti-internment slogan on Derry’s historic city walls.
Fianna Fail’s Eamon O Cuiv, Independent TDs for Dublin, Clare Daly and Maureen O’Sullivan, and Independent Donegal TD Thomas Pringle attended the hearing at the Crown Court in Derry yesterday to support local councillor Gary Donnelly who, along with two others, was convicted last year of causing criminal damage and sentenced to six months in prison.
The transport unions have definitely adopted a more militant approach…
We need the aaa and eirigi to protest this. Free this hero. Patriotic act of valour
@Eye_c_u:
Same question as above. What in your deluded mind do you imagine is the AAA connection to this incident?
Has blueshirt HQ sent out a memo whereby the AAA is to be connected with dissident Republicans in the public mind?
@Patches O Houlihan:
It’s well documented here that I have no time for PBP/AAA on economics you have enough deluded minds to go around but nonetheless trying to connect them to this fool is quiet a stretch.
The SCC is a necessary evil IMO.
Stephen’s attempt below to connect FF/FG to it is just as ridiculous.
So is tossing FF and FG together
If you look at how they’ve governed and their voter base you’ll see a world of difference
FG always had a wealthier support base and big farmers FF more working and middle class they were always a more populist party which is why the Labour Party never took off like the UK as FF stood their clothes in most areas even when in coalition with the PDs (which never would have happened if labour hadn’t jumped ship in mid Dail in 1994 if they’d stayed Ireland would have had a centre left govt all through the boom probably would have made many of same mistakes but might have NOT done a lot that PDs wanted like broadband privatisation hospital collocation…)
A lot of people arnt old enough to really be able to compare them but they’re not the same
Easy look up eirigi on YouTube watch them protest with the aaa about water charges. Look up a few Facebook pages and you seem them all lumped in together at apollo house. You’re welcome
Will we have the usual suspects out now canvassing for this ‘good republican’ ?
Something else to add the demands of the unions #dangermoney
We have armed police at airports and ports now we should have one wandering between Busaras and Connoly after this
he needs to be jailed taking into account what could have happened due to his actions, ie, life sentence. These clowns could easily wipe out your family and have the collective IQ of a garden shed.
Youd think he couldve found a better way of travelling
No expert… but pretty definite TNT isn’t static shock sentitive being a high explosive. Dunno why they said that?
I wonder why they waited until he was on the bus before apprehending him, if he’d been under constant surveillance. They could have stopped him in the taxi, arrested at Busaras while he waited etc. Maybe they wanted to get him the heaviest sentence they could, as a deterrent to others.
what an idiot he wouldn’t know irish history if it went of in his face, parden the pun more and like a waster never worked a day in his life!
ISIS
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