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Minister on bishop's comments: 'Contraception is fact of life now for women'

Mary Mitchell O’Conner said she agreed with the health minister that religion should not determine health and social policy in Ireland.

“CONTRACEPTION IS A fact of life now for women,” said Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor when asked about her reaction comments made by Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran last week.

The Bishop’s comments were reported in the Irish Times last night, which said that he was speaking at an event in Dublin marking the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, when he said the document’s principles have been “ignored for too long”.

Humanae Vitae, which can be read on a Vatican website here, addresses the issues of family planning and contraception. It looks at the Church’s moral teaching on marriage, and its stance on “married love”.

It states that the Church “teaches that each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life”.

It also says that “direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as lawful means of regulating the number of children”.

Similarly excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means.

pjimage-12-18-390x285 Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran and Health Minister Simon Harris

The comments attracted harsh criticism from Health Minister Simon Harris over the weekend, who hit back by stating:

Please make it stop! Increasing access to and availability of contraception in Ireland “is and will remain public health policy.

Mitchell O’Connor said she agreed with Minister Harris’ comments.

0008 Report on Sexual Consent_90550740 RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

“Simon Harris has his job to do and I am Minister for Higher Education and I have my job to do. I have to ensure our students are safe that they can learn and can flourish, and contraception is a fact of life and we are going to have to deal with it.”

She added that contraception is one of the issues Education Minister Richard has asked be included in the National Council on Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) review Ireland’s sex education programmes being taught in Irish schools.

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    Mute Larissa Caroline Nikolaus
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:27 PM

    The guy asked for it, so what’s the issue?

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:29 PM

    I don’t know what to make of this.

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:32 PM

    This news is only about 4 days old.

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 1:47 PM

    Thats a disgrace Dan. Anyone ring Joe?

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 2:54 PM

    Dan, that’s terrible, I hope everyone is ok.

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:32 PM

    at a university’s student union S&M is now art, so 1970s

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    Mute Niall O Neill
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:46 PM

    Did he call him a pansy, patsy or pussy?

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 3:50 PM

    Pony

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 1:31 PM

    These people have too much time on their hands.

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:37 PM

    Who’s Shia LaB…?

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    Mute Jax Maxwel
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:34 PM

    Not much of a video with no sound, not much of a video with sound either I would imagine.

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    Mute Derek Walsh
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 1:00 PM

    Imagine being in a lift with Shia LaBeouf and asking *him* to punch *you* in the face.

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:45 PM

    Your man’s accent is very annoying

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    Mute Jho Harris
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:39 PM

    Have you got rid of your staff, who is Shia The Beef and why would anyone care what he thinks is art?

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    Mute Sean Johnston
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 3:25 PM

    Actor who culturally debased himself by agreeing to appear in more than one Transformers movie continues to beg the worlds artistic community for forgiveness.

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    Mute Paddy Ryan
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 5:57 PM

    For the money he was offered you’d have gotten Laurence Olivier to come back from the dead to star in it.

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 3:38 PM

    A kick in the b0ll0x would be more arty

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    Feb 22nd 2016, 2:38 PM

    Sure….why not?

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    Mute Tadgh Smith
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 7:10 PM

    Meanwhile, in other news a picture of a Kitten on the internet today was adjudged to be “cute”.

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