Thursday, May 6, 2010

Irish TD almost right on abortion

I found out via my subscription to Family and Life's ezine that Leo Varadkar, a young 31 year old half-Indian half-Irish TD with a medical background and apparently a somewhat controversial figure, accepts "a lot of Cahtolic social teaching" even though "not a practising religious person", specifically that abortion in the case of rape should not be legal since the child is the innocent party.

So reports the Irish Independent. This particularly significant given the Irish Labour party's intention to modify the Irish Constitution to make abortion legal if it gets into power at the next general election.

Despite his medical background, his views on some controversial medical issues are quite black and white -- such as abortion. "I would accept a lot of Catholic social teaching. I'm not a practising religious person, but I would accept that. I wouldn't be in favour of abortion. The only thing that would be a grey area is if there's a genuine threat or risk to the life of the mother."

What about the provision of abortion services for rape victims? "I wouldn't be in favour of it in that case, and, you know, first of all, it isn't the child's fault that they're the child of rape. You can say the same thing about disabled children. You know, some people would make that argument in favour of abortion. It's not their fault they're disabled. I wouldn't be in favour of it in those circumstances either.

"Even, how would that work practically? Would someone have to prove that they've been raped? I think where that's been brought in in countries it has more or less led to abortion on demand," he adds.

Is it not double standards to have more than 5,000 women a year travelling to the UK and elsewhere for abortions? "I don't think that's double standards. People travel overseas to do things overseas that aren't legal in Ireland all the time. You know, are we going to stop people going to Las Vegas? Are we going to stop people going to Amsterdam? There are things that are illegal in Ireland and we don't prevent people from travelling overseas to avail of them."

Mr Varadkar can be contacted via email or post (37A Main Street, Ongar, Dublin 15).

1 comment:

  1. Yes Father, it is telling to see that even someone who is not “a practicing religious person” recognizes that in the case of rape an abortion is never justified. Here in the US many people in public life smugly declare themselves opposed to abortion, but always with the qualification: “except in the case of rape or incest”. Even Catholics, who should know better, have fallen into this trap of relativism – or situation ethics as we used to call it - and seem unaware of the contradiction in their stance. Mr. Varadkar is closer to the fullness of Catholic teaching than many ‘Catholics’ - which is a sad reflection on our times and the catechesis they have received.

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