On the day of the UPR hearing, the Irish Times published an article by Mark Kelly of the Rights Now campaign, which called, amongst other things for abortion to be legalised. In an open letter to the media, the Life Institute responded as follows:

Sir,

Mark Kelly's article advised that it would take "moral and political courage on the part of the Government to introduce legislation allowing abortion". As a medical practitioner I know that it requires no courage whatsoever to offer the violence of abortion as a solution to any crisis arising in pregnancy. Women and children deserve better than the medieval practice of abortion, and whatever problem arises, we should act to terminate the crisis and not the child.

I watched Alan Shatter's appearance before the UN committee in Geneva, and saw representatives from Britain, Spain and Denmark, amongst others, lecture Ireland and urge us to introduce abortion. The Minister's response was spineless: at no stage did he point out that Irish medical experts have testified that abortion is not medically necessary, or that his primary obligation was to the Irish people who have shown that they remain firmly opposed to abortion, or that the UN has no business trying to tell the Irish people how to decide their laws.

Minister Shatter could have told the Geneva meeting that abortion strips helpless children of their right to life and that all the evidence now points to the fact that abortion is harming women - a finding that has been confirmed for me repeatedly in my professional practice as a clinical psychiatrist. And he could have pointed out that, according to the UN's own statistics, Ireland, without abortion, is the safest place in the world for a woman to have a baby. But Minister Shatter said none of those things. Instead he told the UN that the Irish government would hurry to do their bidding.

May I also point to the irony that Mr Kelly was pivotal to the production of the 'Rights Now' report, which purported to have the support of a great many organisations, and which was funded by the American billionaire, Chuck Feeney to the tune of €150,000. The 'Rights Now' report became the subject of controversy when, on learning that a previously unseen section of the report called for abortion legislation, one of the chief organisations, Trócaire, withdrew its support for the report. In a letter seen by the Life Institute, other groups which wished to follow suit were told the report had been submitted to the UN and that their names could not be withdrawn. Perhaps Mr Kelly would write his next opinion piece for the Irish Times on the subject of freedom of association.

Yours sincerely,

The Life Institute, 60a Capel Street, Dublin 1