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Seth Moulton (L) and his Republican colleague Peter Meijer. PA Images

US congressmen criticised for visiting Kabul airport for photo-op during evacuation

The goal of the operation was to push Biden to extend the 31 August evacuation cutoff date.

TWO US CONGRESSMEN have revealed that they violated official orders to travel to Kabul during the chaotic airlift that has seen the United States and allies try to evacuate tens of thousands of people fleeing the Taliban.

The revelation by Democratic congressman Seth Moulton and his Republican colleague Peter Meijer prompted an angry statement from the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.

“Today with @RepMeijer I visited Kabul airport to conduct oversight on the evacuation,” said Moulton. The two men are veterans of the Iraq war.

“We did this visit in secret to reduce risks and impact on the mission and we insisted on leaving in a plane that was not full, in a seat designated for crew so that we didn’t take a seat from someone else,” Moulton continued on Twitter.

More than 80,000 people have been evacuated since 14 August, the day before the Taliban took control of Kabul and seized power in Afghanistan.

But huge crowds remain outside Kabul airport, with countless others hiding in the city and elsewhere in the country still hoping to flee the threat of reprisals and repression under the Islamists’ new regime.

Time is running out to save the rest, with a 31 August deadline set by US President Joe Biden looming, and the Taliban saying they will refuse to extend it.

‘Irresponsible’ 

The two representatives flew to the Middle East on their own and then traveled on a military plane from a US-allied country to Kabul, all without coordinating with US diplomats or military command, American media reported.

The goal of the operation was to push Biden to extend the 31 August evacuation cutoff date, according to the two men.

“After talking with commanders on the ground and seeing the situation here, it is obvious that because we started the evacuation so late, that no matter what we do, we won’t get everyone out on time, even by September 11,” Moulton tweeted.

Biden said today during a press conference that the United States would meet the deadline but stressed that meeting that cutoff would depend on cooperation from the Taliban.

The United States deployed fresh troops to help with evacuations. But that 6,000-plus contingent, as well as hundreds of US officials, 600 Afghan troops and the equipment, will have to be flown out.

Despite the harrowing scenes at Kabul airport, the Taliban have ruled out any extension to next Tuesday’s deadline to pull out foreign troops, describing it as “a red line.”

“We were not aware of this visit, and we are obviously not encouraging VIP visits to a very tense, dangerous and dynamic situation,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a press conference today.

On the same day as Meijer and Moulton’s trip, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi reminded the Congressional body in a statement that “the Departments of Defense and State have requested that Members not travel to Afghanistan and the region during this time.”

Such travel “would unnecessarily divert needed resources from the priority mission of safely and expeditiously evacuating America and Afghans at risk from Afghanistan,” she said, without naming the two representatives in the statement.

“It’s one of the most irresponsible things I’ve heard a lawmaker do,” one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Washington Post of the trip.

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    Mute David Dickenson
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:05 PM

    God help them, they have slumped down to our level.

    193
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    Mute Emeralds
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:20 PM

    But a level above the UK, where parliament declines to make gender-selective abortions illegal

    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-31596968

    and where aborted babies are burned for fuel

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/15/aborted-babies-incinerated-to-heat-uk-hospitals/

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    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:34 PM

    @Emeralds : Is the practice of gender selective abortions illegal in the UK ?

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    Mute OpenBorders
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    Mar 7th 2017, 10:55 PM

    @Emeralds: All post-operation material is incinerated on health and safety grounds, what do you think happens to it? That it’s freeze dried and put in a frame?

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    Mute Tony Daly
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    Mar 7th 2017, 12:55 PM

    Only in India?

    Or maybe not, now that I think of Tuam and other places in Ireland.

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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:00 PM

    @Tony Daly:

    Horrific as it is that children who died in that “home” in Tuam were buried that manner, the consequences of sex-selective abortion are potentially apocalyptic, i.e. numerical imbalance between the sexes, which means that many men in India (and China) can’t get a potential wife, leading to more violence against women, and also possibly to a third world war because of all that testosterone.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Mar 7th 2017, 5:14 PM

    This is why feminism is needed. Women can earn money just as well as men and the idea of a dowery is out dated and should be stamped out. Inequality will hurt this male generation greatly.

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    Mute Daniel R
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    Mar 8th 2017, 2:46 AM

    Exactly. Feminists should concentrate their efforts on countries like India and the Middle East instead of on trivialities in the West.

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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Mar 7th 2017, 12:56 PM

    And Indian people have the nerve to lecture us about women’s rights?!

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:04 PM

    Yeah because she people are able to look and see that both are wrong

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Mar 7th 2017, 5:12 PM

    Yeah. Sure aren’t we perfect!

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    Mute Emmet O'Keeffe
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:20 PM

    The horrors of the abortion industry.

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    Mute Censored
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:27 PM

    Liberals go crazy at this, yet when a feminist says she will abort a male foetus, nobody cares

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    Mute James
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:38 PM

    No word from you of course on the poor woman who died during one of these ILLEGAL ABORTIONS. Of course not.. just another article for your scrap book of fetus porn.

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    Mute Emmet O'Keeffe
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:42 PM

    The liberal/feminist argument is riddled with cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy.

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    Mute Thunder Snowman
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:48 PM

    Are you serious Censored? One woman ever who said she aborted a foetus purely based on the sex versus tens of millions of female foetuses aborted. This is not the right topic for you to push your anti choice agenda, it’s female infanticide.

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    Mute Censored
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:09 PM

    Merely pointing out a double standard. No need to wet yourself.

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    Mute Thunder Snowman
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:15 PM

    Like I said Censored, you cannot compare one known case against millions. This really is not the right thread to incite your anti female rhetoric.

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    Mute Emeralds
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:17 PM

    It’s not one known case against millions (there’s a lot more than one anyway).

    Every case of gender-selective abortion is the same, regardless of whether you’re killing the foetus for being male or female.

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    Mute Titus Groan
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:39 PM

    Well if twitter says it, it must be true. Your point is moronic and that has been clearly illustrated to you. You jog on. Place and time, sunny Jim.

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    Mute Thunder Snowman
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:51 PM

    What feminists say on Twitter? Come back to me when they start digging up graves full of dead baby boys.

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    Mute Censored
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    Mar 7th 2017, 3:14 PM

    So Twitter is only representative when you want it to be. Nice liberal hypocrisy

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    Mute Thunder Snowman
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    Mar 7th 2017, 3:18 PM

    I’ve never recited Twitter comments as facts, that’s all you.

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    Mute Emmet O'Keeffe
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    Mar 7th 2017, 4:39 PM

    @Titus Groan:
    It does highlight the horrors of abortion though.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Mar 7th 2017, 5:18 PM

    It highlights a society that does not value women as being equal to men. Boys are better so kill the girls only leads to a lot of lonely boys.

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    Mute Thunder Snowman
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    Mar 7th 2017, 5:42 PM

    Who’s to say if abortion was illegal they wouldn’t have just killed the female babies when born. This article is about female infanticide, not abortion.

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 7th 2017, 6:37 PM

    I notice that you use the phrase “kill the girls” there Deborah. A lot of abortionists would take umbrage with you over that terminology. The pregnancy is being terminated, not a person, nobody is dying etc. etc.

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    Mute A H
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    Mar 7th 2017, 8:54 PM

    Actually Sean by the time you can tell the sex, it’s pretty much almost a baby by then in fairness.

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 7th 2017, 9:00 PM

    Most fanatical abortionists will deny the baby’s existence until it exits the womb. It is purely a foetus and fair game for dismemberment beforehand. I know it’s madness but it’s true.

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    Mute Peter Fox
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    Mar 7th 2017, 12:59 PM

    Nothing compared to our septic Isle!

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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:09 PM

    @Peter Fox:

    Our island has had many atrocities but the Indian subcontinent makes it look like Tellytubbyland, e.g. the massacres committed by mutinous sepoys in 1857, by Hindu and Muslim militant groups against each other’s co-religionists in 1947 (There were more massacres of Muslim civilians in India in recent years), by the Pakistani Army against Bengalis in 1971 and by Sri Lankan Army against Tamils in 2009, the persecution of Christians and Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan.

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    Mute Banana Rama
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:31 PM

    …aaand that’s why i’m against abortion.

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    Mute Mark Gearey
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:37 PM

    @Banana Rama: You’re against abortion cos they use it to select the gender of their baby in parts of india. That’s very specific. Maybe that’s not what u meant.

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 7th 2017, 6:42 PM

    In the US it’s used 96% of the time for ‘convenience reasons’ according to their national stats. These reasons include; interfere with career or job prospects, too costly, too young to raise etc. Surely gender is a weak enough excuse also? About 900,000 abortions in the US in 2015 were for these convenience reasons. Is this acceptable? If it is then surely gender is also acceptable? You can’t have it every way.

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    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
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    Mar 7th 2017, 7:06 PM

    @Sean @114: Hi Sean :) What number of abortions in the first trimester would be acceptable to you ?

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 7th 2017, 7:21 PM

    Any number for FFA or mother’s life at risk. How about post first trimester for you Francis. There were about 91,000 of these in 2015 in the US alone. Where do you stand on post first trimester abortions Francis? I won’t bore you with the gorey unsightly youtube dismemberment videos as shock tactics are not my style. Thanks

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    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
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    Mar 7th 2017, 7:52 PM

    As you quoted the % of abortions in the first trimester that happen in America,what would your preferred % be ? Now,it’s pointless saying 0% as we both know that that is just pie in the sky stuff.

    I have no issue whatsoever with safe,legal 1st,2nd,3rd trimester abortions.
    As for your videos,why would you want me to watch something that I have no interest whatsoever in watching? Yikes!

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 7th 2017, 7:58 PM

    Well I guess your words speak volumes there Francis. Couldn’t care less basically. For somebody who has no interest and doesn’t care you sure comment a lot on the subject. Anyway you know my stance on abortion, I think it’s an acceptable option in any trimester in a FFA or danger to woman’s life scenario. You on the other hand would clearly be content with limitless abortions at any stage of development and for any reason. That is something that I am vehemently opposed to but I respect your opinion all the same.

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    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
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    Mar 7th 2017, 8:10 PM

    @Sean @114: They do Sean.But you don’t even take the woman’s physical/mental well-being,into your considerations.It is birth all the way if mr/ms embryo is healthy.If the woman dies during her unwanted pregnancy,so what.

    I’m a realist Sean,you have nearly a million abortions happening every year in the US,they will not magically go away.Best to have them in a safe environment..

    Anybody like to buy a baby ? Genuine question as the back babies are going cheap.

    http://www.npr.org/2013/06/27/195967886/six-words-black-babies-cost-less-to-adopt

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 7th 2017, 8:41 PM

    Yes danger to woman’s life so that would be considered health. The US abortion stats won’t go away Francis because there is no legislation preventing the act. That’s why the 8th must be repealed but not abolished. It’s like saying that gun killings will not decrease in the US because we won’t ban the sale of guns. You will never protect all lives but you can protect some.

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    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
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    Mar 8th 2017, 5:13 AM

    @Sean @114: “The US abortion stats won’t go away Francis because there is no legislation preventing the act”

    And before the legislation was brought in Sean,there were about 800,000 illegal abortions being carried out.The death rate per year was around 5,000 and “God” only knows how many women turned up at A&E’s with severe complications.Are these the times that the “pro life” people want to go back to? A time where only the well-to-do could get an abortion in a safe environment ? Okey dokey!

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    Mute Robert O'Neill
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:11 PM

    Send our nuns home

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    Mute Emmet O'Keeffe
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:17 PM

    @Robert O’Neill:
    ‘Aborted foetuses’

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    Mute Censored
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:24 PM

    Wait, I thought abortion was liberal?

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    Mute Mark Gearey
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:35 PM

    @Censored: Abortion is grand altogether. It’s favouring one gender over the other that’s not so good. Leaves lots of unattached men in society and a lot of the time they are up to no good. What was your point again?

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    Mute Banana Rama
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:38 PM

    I swear, the world ‘liberal’ now sends shivers down my spine. We’re heading for such a miserable, lawless world.

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    Mute Martin Byrne
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:43 PM

    Liberal means nothing. I’m pro choice but that doesn’t mean I’m ok with this kind of thing. But if you are dumb enough to think that this is an abortion problem rather than a women’s rights problem then I despair for the world.

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    Mute James
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:11 PM

    It’s the “liberals” that allow Iona and Youth Defense (same thing) a platform in the discussion at all rather than have Revenue and the Charities Regulator go through their accounts like a dose of salts… and don’t for a second pretend you’re not affiliated to them…

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    Mute Emeralds
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:15 PM

    If you’re pro-choice then you can’t have a problem with this kind of thing

    As Ann Furedi (Chief Exec of BPAS) said; “You can’t be pro-choice except when you don’t like the choice, because that’s not pro-choice at all.”

    https://www.google.ie/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pro-choice-abortion-charity-bpas-chief-exec-ann-furedi-says-women-are-legally-free-to-terminate-8824854.html%3Famp

    And she’s far from alone

    https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/19/sex-selective-abortion-womans-right

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    Mute James
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:29 PM

    Really… you can’t be pro choice and against illegal abortions being carried out…. hmmm

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    Mute MuckyMoo
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    Mar 7th 2017, 5:07 PM

    @James: Pro choice people don’t believe abortions should be considered illegal so no. Same way they go around handing out illegal pills to girls

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    Mute Jake Gundersonn
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:54 PM

    Liberals probably feel the need to legalise and repeal this practice of sex selective abortion now. Imagine if liberals did rule, imagine how cold hearted and dead society would become. People would have equal value to an inanimate object . No culture and everyone being the same. Deciding to have a family would be considered archaic and old school as the population plummets down to economically disastrous levels. Oh yes and they think conservatives are bad

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Mar 7th 2017, 2:05 PM

    Jake, this isn’t your first argument against giving people more rights is it?

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Mar 7th 2017, 5:22 PM

    Yeah just let men set the rules like the good old days.

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    Mute George McCarthy
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    Mar 7th 2017, 1:35 PM

    India is Ireland 50 years ago.

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    Mute MuckyMoo
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    Mar 7th 2017, 5:06 PM

    Will the people who shout repeal the 8th shout it in the name of the girls to are killed just because they are girls?

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    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
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    Mar 7th 2017, 6:13 PM

    @MuckyMoo: Can you give us a list of their names ? Thanks.

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 7th 2017, 7:41 PM

    Ask Deborah up above. She was banging on about the Indians killing the girls. Something doesn’t have to have a name for it to be alive Francis. You do realise that, yes? How do you feel about post first trimester abortions? There were 91,000 of these in the US in 2015. All ok with you? Thanks

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    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
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    Mar 7th 2017, 7:59 PM

    @Sean @114: I have no problem whatsoever with those procedures.

    You are the lad that wants every woman to go full term with an unwanted pregnancy.YIKES!

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Mar 7th 2017, 8:42 PM

    Really? Where did I say that Francis or are you making things up again?

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    Mute Brendan Moriarty
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    Mar 7th 2017, 3:38 PM

    They have sewers in India? #WentThere

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    Mar 7th 2017, 3:10 PM

    India’s Tuam.

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