News Roundup

Magdalenes group call for ‘No’ vote in care referendum

A campaign group for former residents of Magdalene laundries has called for a ‘No’ vote in the upcoming referendum to replace the ‘mothers in the home’ clause with a statement on care within the family.

Writing in the Examiner newspaper, Professor Katherine O’Donnell, Dr Maeve O’Rourke, and Dr Claire McGettrick, of the Justice for Magdalenes Research group, noted the “growing numbers of Irish feminists who are publicly admitting that they will vote no” on the care amendment.

They say the proposed article “betrays the committed work of many years by groups who campaigned together to achieve important recommendations from the Citizens’ Assembly and an all-party Oireachtas Committee, only for the Government to propose an entirely opposed understanding of what best constitutes ‘Care.’”

They add: “The Government wants to insist that it is families, first, foremost and solely who must provide care while the State will “strive” to support them. The Government’s proposed clause makes a distance between citizens, presumed clustered in family groupings, and a transcendent State, removed from obligations to care, committed to (at best) offering forms of support for all of the caring work that must be done.”

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‘Ambiguity’ and ‘lack of clarity’ in referendum proposals, says Presbyterian church

The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) has called the forthcoming family and care referendums a “missed opportunity” that would likely not be of any real benefit.

In a letter to its members, they say the “ambiguity and lack of clarity contained within some of the amendments will mean that it is unlikely to introduce meaningful change, which could have been of benefit to society as a whole”.

Specifically regarding the family referendum, they say, “we are disappointed that the proposed amendment seeks to remove the link between marriage and family”.

They add that they are “not alone in foreseeing major problems that will arise from the lack of clarity surrounding this new definition and interpretation of ‘durable relationships’ in the proposed new text”.

 On the “mothers in the home” or “care” amendment they express concern that the deletion of this article may unintentionally devalue the “pivotal role that mothers have in nurturing and bringing up children”, and lead to a failure to recognise “the huge economic, as well as the social value of parents (mothers and fathers), who have the ability to stay at home with their children during their formative years”.

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Gender ideology is ‘ugliest danger’ today, says Pope Francis

Pope Francis has said contemporary cultural challenges including gender ideology are putting at risk a culture that protects human and Christians vocations.

Gender ideology believes that gender is divorced from one’s biological sex and can be changed at will.

“It is very important that there is this meeting, this meeting between men and women, because today the ugliest danger is gender ideology, which cancels out differences,” the Pope said during an audience with members of the French-based academic organisation Research and Anthropology of Vocations Institute (CRAV).

Gender ideology, which seeks to blur differences between men and women through movements such as transgenderism, “makes everything the same,” Francis said.

“Erasing differences is erasing humanity. Man and woman, however, are in a fruitful ‘tension,’” Francis told the assembly, which gathered in Rome for a two-day international conference titled “Man, Woman, Image of God: For an Anthropology of Vocations.”

https://www.ncregister.com/cna/pope-francis-today-the-ugliest-danger-is-gender-ideology

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France makes abortion a constitutional right

France has become the first country in the world to explicitly include the right to abortion in its constitution.

Parliamentarians voted 780-72 to revise the country’s 1958 constitution to enshrine women’s “guaranteed freedom” to abort. Abortion has been available on wide grounds in France for almost 50 years. About 200,000 terminations take place in the country each year versus about 680,000 births.

President Emmanuel Macron described the move as “French pride” that had sent a “universal message”.

However pro-life groups have strongly criticised the change.

Polls show around 85% of the public supported amending the constitution to protect the right to abort.

And while several other countries include reproductive rights in their constitutions – France is the first to explicitly state that an abortion will be guaranteed.

It becomes the 25th amendment to modern France’s founding document, and the first since 2008.

Following the vote, the Eiffel Tower was lit up with the message: “My Body My Choice”.

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Independent Ireland TDs call for NO/NO vote 

The new political party of TDs Michael Collins, Michael Fitzmaurice and Richard O’Donoghue is advocating a No/No vote in the March 8 referendums on “family” and “care”.

Party Leader, Michael Collins, said that it’s “incredible to think that two days before Mother’s Day, the Irish government wants to remove the word woman from the constitution.”

“Here we have not one but two referendums that have been poorly worded, poorly communicated and rushed through without proper scrutiny and mixed messages on our current constitution from government ministers means I do not have the confidence to advocate for any change to our current constitution”.

“At a time when so many people are struggling to make ends meet, it is this sort of symbolic but ultimately insubstantial political point-scoring that grinds the gears of so many people. While the government spend millions of taxpayer’s monies on two referendums, the struggle in the cost of living, housing, healthcare and any number of other issues continue for ordinary men and women across the country”.

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Pro-life student group needs police protection from mob at Manchester

A student pro-life group required police to protect them from a hostile crowd of up to 250 people that surrounded a building where they were due to meet.

The University of Manchester’s Pro-Life Society, met for a talk on the evening of 1 March. As students tried to access the building, eggs were thrown at windows, while attendees were subject to “a torrent of verbal abuse and threats”.

As students left the event, they had to proceed through a tunnel of protesters held back by police as the air reverberated with chanting: “Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!”

The pro-life students were spat at and threatened with physical abuse, including one female first-year student being told to “get raped”. Some members of the crowd then pursued the students while shouting and swearing at them.

A heavily pregnant 22-year-old woman had to be escorted home in a police van due to concerns for her safety.

“I really thought our lives were in danger,” says Maisie, the expectant mother and an alumna of the university.

A petition has been signed by 15,000 students looking for the pro-life organisation to be shut down completely.

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Trinity Students Union calls for ‘No’ vote in carers’ referendum

Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) has advised its members to vote no in the upcoming referendum on care to “not sideline the needs and voices of individuals with disabilities”.

The group called for a yes vote in the family referendum to recognise “durable relationships”.

In a letter, the union said the referendum to replace Article 41.2 does not “foster a truly inclusive and equitable society”.

The letter said the wording “takes a narrow view of carers, pertaining solely to family, and completely disregards the needs of people with disabilities”.

“This is a massive oversight on part of the government, and in light of further recent developments, such as the flawed Green Paper on Disability Reform, is no surprise.”

The letter also said the new article would allow the state to “shirk any legal responsibility” to provide resources and support services for people with disabilities.

“We need to vote no on the care referendum to ensure stronger rights from the government – ones based on enforceable, rights-based wording, not vague promises.”

TCDSU is the only student union in Ireland so far to take a stance on the March 8 referendums.

TCDSU endorse #YesNo vote in upcoming family and care referendums

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Lawyers group urge No vote in family and care referendums

A Yes vote in next week’s referendums would mean “major uncertainties” for people in short-term relationships, according to a group of lawyers led by former Attorney General, Michael McDowell.

It would also have long-term consequences in areas of law such as family, tax and property, and result in “no justiciable rights” for people either giving or needing care, Lawyers for No (LFN) said.

The ad hoc group campaigning for a ‘NoNo’ vote also includes Clare Independent TD and barrister Michael McNamara; barrister and journalist Brenda Power; and Maria Steen.

Senator McDowell heavily criticised the government’s behaviour saying that the referendum bills had been pushed through “in a matter of hours”, and without “pre-legislative scrutiny”. He said Minister Roderic O’Gorman’s department’s decision to not publish the minutes of 16 meetings held between interdepartmental groups was “absolutely extraordinary”.

McDowell said the government was in effect saying that it is “in the public interest to keep the public in the dark” on the consequences of the constitutional amendments it is keeping until after votes have been cast.

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EU Parliament again condemns commercial surrogacy

MEPs included “commercial surrogacy” among a list of increasing violations of human rights and democratic values in their 2023 annual report. Ireland is about to adopt one of the most permissive regimes in Europe concerning the practice. The law will be against commercial surrogacy on paper but will allow surrogate mothers to be paid “reasonable expenses” which can to tens of thousands of euro.

The report was adopted on Wednesday by 377 votes for, 90 against and 68 abstentions.

Under the heading of “Rights of women, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender equality”, the Parliament, “Reiterates its condemnation of the commercial practice of surrogacy, a global phenomenon that exposes women worldwide to exploitation and human trafficking, while targeting financially and socially vulnerable women in particular; highlights its severe impact on women, women’s rights, and women’s health, and underlines its crossborder implications”.

The rapporteur Nacho Sánchez Amor (S&D, ES), said after the vote: “One of the humanity’s most fundamental achievements has been to embrace that every human being has a set of inherent, inalienable, individual and indivisible rights. However, in recent decades illiberal and authoritarian regimes have called these onto question. It is therefore crucial, now more than ever, that the EU and like-minded partners invest all efforts and resources in their defence.”

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UK Parliamentary inquiry recommends ‘no change’ to laws against assisted suicide

A new report from the UK Parliament’s Health and Social Care committee has not recommended any change to country’s law against assisted suicide. It heard about a litany of problems in jurisdictions that have legalised the practice as well as claims in favour of it.

The report notes that, among members of the British Medical Association, those more likely to be opposed to a change were those who worked in specialities that dealt directly with patients at the end of their lives.

The report quotes from a number of witnesses who discuss the manner in which the legalisation of assisted suicide distorts the doctor-patient relationship.

It noted financial concerns that can lead people to want to end their lives prematurely as well as other non-medical concerns such as loneliness, which can influence a person’s decision.

The report noted concerns from disability rights groups and people with disabilities who suggested assisted suicide “reinforce[s] the damaging notion that disabled lives are not worth living.”

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