Legal protection in Texas

Dear Editor,

In a step towards a more inclusive society, babies having a heartbeat, detectable at six weeks’ gestation, are once again receiving legal protection, in Texas.

Some would characterise this development as merely part of the to-and-fro swing of a public-opinion pendulum, in that debate between the right-to-life and legalising for the intentional killing of babies in the womb. But it is more than this.

Already, in Texas thousands of babies’ lives have been saved from death. These will go on to celebrate their first birthday, take their place in pre-school, ‘big’-school, college-life, and ultimately contribute to society as artists, professionals, tradesmen and homemakers. Without the rightto-life no other right can exist; we all become disposable, beholden to the prevailing socio-economic forces.

If we demand for ourself something that we are unwilling to extend to every other human being, regardless of where they are at in the cycle of life, then we are merely corrupt judges, exacting perceived privileges at someone else’s expense.

Our existing social model, places vulnerable mothers of unborn babies in socio-economic dilemmas, isolating them, and steering them towards the abortion industry. No woman is ever the same after losing a baby in this way; too often I have heard those most heart-wrenching refrains: “I had to do it”, “I had no other option”, “I had no choice”.

In our upcoming review of Ireland’s abortion law, it is vital that we are guided by this life-affirming legislative change in Texas. Only those ensnared by ideological absolutism will discount all the good it’s doing.

A detectable heart-beat means a baby and his or her mother needs to be embraced and supported by all society. Without babies we have no future, without compassion we lose our humanity.

Yours etc., Gearóid Duffy, Lee Road, Cork.