Monday, February 12, 2007
Portugal will legalise terminations
I'm very saddened to learn that Portugal is preparing to legalise abortion, despite turnout for the referendum on the matter being too low to be legally binding. Turnout was about 40%, far less than the 50% required, but of those who did vote, 59.3% backed a proposed change to the current law.
Now Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates is determined to press ahead with the change:
"The law will now be discussed and approved in parliament.
"Our interest is to fight clandestine abortion and we have to produce a law that respects the result of the referendum.
"The people spoke with a clear voice."
Partido Popular, which campaigned against the change, have condemned the plans, as have the Catholic Church who have said Catholics, who account for 90% of Portugal's population, must oppose abortion.
Of all the EU countries, only Ireland, Malta and Poland have such similarly strict legislation as Portugal.
I must say I find this very disappointing. I echo the sentiments expressed by Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo, the Patriarch of Lisbon, who said:
"Whatever the motives that justify this dramatic act in the eyes of a woman, it is always the denial of a place in the world for a human life that was conceived."
And that is the crux of the issue. To deny the chance of life is just as heinous an act as to take a life. There is no difference.
Should this one's life have been snuffed out?
I can't wrap my head around these people who campaign for things such as this. Do the Portuguese people who cheered and danced around as this result was announced not understand that had their parents decided to have an abortion when they were in the womb, they wouldn't even be here today?
And don't get me started on the moronic argument that life doesn't begin until you have been delivered from the womb and taken your first breath of air.
Expectant parents can observe their unborn child's heart beating on an ultrasound and they can feel their child kicking. Now if those aren't signs of life I don't know what are.
That is not the only problem associated with this. As the BBC report:
"Voters were being asked to decide whether to make abortion legal in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, if carried out at the woman's request in a registered clinic.
"But since the wording says nothing about the woman having to justify her decision, those against the reform say it is abortion on demand."
Notice how ridiculously skewed this is in the woman's favour. That's another one of the moronic arguments - "what about the woman's right to choose"? Huh? It wasn't just the woman that caused the pregnancy!
The man never has a choice at all. If the woman decides to terminate the pregnancy it's a case of, "Sorry about that but I guess you aren't becoming a father after all. Thanks for the sex though. It was fun!"
Abortion in my mind is one of the most ghastly things that humans have ever come up with. The idea that we as people can play God and determine who is fit to come in to this world and who isn't is a fundamentally flawed position.
In my view only in extreme cases should abortion be considered an option.
Portugal has decided to embark down a dark road of death. Its victims will never have a chance...
# posted by United Irelander @ 9:25 PM 
© 2008 United Irelander.
