Abortion never saves a mother’s life...
...it just kills a baby.

It’s time to set the record straight

The majority of Irish people are against abortion. That’s long been a problem for the abortion industry.
 
So now they’re using fear to promote abortion, and hurting women in the process. They’re claiming that life-saving medical treatments are actually abortions. But that’s simply not true.

The facts are:

1. Abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent unborn child.
2. There are absolutely no medical conditions which require an abortion to save the life of the mother.
3. If a mother develops a life-threatening condition in pregnancy, such as cancer or an ectopic pregnancy, they will always be treated, even if that treatment causes the unintentional death of the baby. That’s the situation in Ireland where abortion remains illegal. And, according to the UN, Ireland is the safest place in the world to have a baby.
4. Some rare conditions may require the premature delivery of a child to save the mother’s life, after which all efforts will be made to keep the child alive. Sometimes the baby unfortunately dies but this is not the intention of the operation.
5. These treatments are not abortions. To suggest that they are is grossly dishonest. It also causes huge hurt and distress to mothers who have lost their babies because of life-saving medical treatment.

What do doctors say?

The top doctors in the field have never considered these life-saving medical treatments to be abortions. For example, in Ireland, if a mother develops cancer of her womb during pregnancy and needs to be treated with surgery she can have a hysterectomy which will remove her womb. Unfortunately her unborn child will die as a result of this, however,  this is not and should never be considered as an abortion.

Does this terminology matter? Absolutely: because no Irish doctor should be told they have performed an abortion and no Irish mother should be told they had an abortion after such an intervention. Abortion doesn't save lives, it kills babies
 
In 2001, the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which guides the doctors who care for expectant mothers, clearly stated that life-saving medical treatments for cancer and other conditions were not abortions.
 
The Institute’s Chairman Professor John Bonner said: “We have never regarded these interventions as abortion. It would never cross an obstetrician's mind that intervening in a case of pre-eclampsia, cancer of the cervix or ectopic pregnancy is abortion. They are not abortion as far as the professional is concerned, these are medical treatments that are essential to save the life of the mother.”

Best care for mothers and babies

Ireland is the safest place in the world for a mother to have a baby; and that’s according to the United Nations. A 2007 UN report covering 171 countries put us at the top of the list – finding that Ireland was the safest country in the world in which to be pregnant.  

Since 1983 there has been a ban on abortion in Ireland and doctors have been able to treat pregnant women for any conditions which arose during their pregnancies. That means our doctors work harder to save both mother and baby. Let’s keep it that way.

Causing hurt and distress

The abortion industry is deliberately causing confusion. They're trying to terrify women and bully the Irish people. They’re following the line of Nazi propagandists who claimed that “a lie told often enough becomes the truth”.

But this lie - that a life-saving medical treatment is the same thing as an abortion - is also causing huge hurt and distress to mothers who have lost children.