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LAST UPDATE | 23 Sep 2022
UK CHANCELLOR KWASI Kwarteng has abolished the top rate of income tax for the highest earners as he spent tens of billions of pounds in a bid to drive up growth to ease the cost of living crisis.
In a so-called mini-budget axing the cap on bankers’ bonuses and adding restrictions to the welfare system, he argued on Friday that tax cuts are “central to solving the riddle of growth”.
He scrapped the 45% higher rate of income tax and brought forward the planned cut to the basic rate to 19p in the pound a year early to April.
Mini-budget
Kwarteng also revealed his estimate that the two-year energy bills bailout will cost around £60 billion (€67 billion) over its first six months from October.
The package enacting Liz Truss’s tax-cutting promises including reversing the national insurance rise and axing the hike to corporation tax came a day after the Bank of England warned the UK may already be in a recession.
The Bank also lifted interest rates to 2.25% – the highest level for 14 years.
The package also included a cut to stamp duty and removed the cap on bankers’ bonuses.
Plans to make around 120,000 more people on Universal Credit take active steps to seek more and better-paid work or face having their benefits reduced were also confirmed.
There will also be an introduction of VAT-free shopping for overseas visitors.
Kwarteng said their economic vision would “turn the vicious cycle of stagnation into a virtuous cycle of growth”.
The series of tax cuts are the biggest in 50 years, since a massive tax slash budget in 1972 by Conservative Chancellor Anthony Barber.
However, Labour’s shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the strategy amounts to an “admission of 12 years of economic failure” under successive Conservative governments.
The Labour MP likened the Prime Minister and Kwarteng to “two desperate gamblers in a casino chasing a losing run”.
“The Chancellor has made clear who his priorities are today – not a plan for growth, a plan to reward the already wealthy,” said Reeves.
“A return to the trickle-down of the past, back to the future, not a brave new era.”
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said that it was a “a budget by millionaires for millionaires”.
“Rather than attempting to help the millions of people across these islands who are mired in a cost of living emergency, what we got from the British government today was a budget by millionaires for millionaires,” said Eastwood.
“A decision to remove the cap on bankers’ bonuses at a time when many people’s salaries don’t cover their basic necessities is vulgar in the extreme.
This is the Tory party acting as they have always done, making sure that their wealthy backers and big businesses are well looked after, without a thought for the rest of us. Trickledown economics doesn’t work, it has never worked and all it will achieve is to widen inequalities at a time when those who are struggling have less than ever before.
The new plan has not been welcomed in Scotland, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon saying that the super wealthy are “laughing all the way to the actual bank”.
On Twitter, Sturgeon said that while the super wealthy would be receiving tax cuts, “increasing numbers” would be forced to rely on food banks “all thanks to the incompetence and recklessness of this failed UK gov”.
The super wealthy laughing all the way to the actual bank (tho I suspect many of them will also be appalled by the moral bankruptcy of the Tories) while increasing numbers of the rest relying on food banks - all thanks to the incompetence and recklessness of this failed UK gov
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) September 23, 2022
Meanwhile, the Welsh Finance Minister has said the decisions made by Kwarteng would not help struggling households.
“Today’s announcements show the UK Government is heading in a deeply worrying direction, with misplaced priorities leading to a regressive statement that will embed unfairness across the United Kingdom,” said Finance Minister Rebecca Evans.
“Instead of delivering meaningful, targeted support to those who need help the most, the Chancellor is prioritising funding for tax cuts for the rich, unlimited bonuses for bankers, and protecting the profits of big energy companies.”
Market reaction
The pound dived to another fresh 37-year low as traders swallowed the cost of the Chancellor’s latest package and potential impact on Government borrowing.
Sterling declined by as much as 0.89% to 1.115 US dollars as Kwarteng spoke in the Commons at 9.30.
The price of Government borrowing soared even higher as British bond yields rose, amid fears the package had sent the UK markets into meltdown.
Ministers were accused by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) of “betting the house” by putting Government debt on an “unsustainable rising path”.
The respected financial think tank’s scathing assessment said only those with incomes of over £155,000 (€173,700) will be net beneficiaries of tax policies announced by the Conservatives over the current Parliament, with the “vast majority of income tax payers paying more tax”.
By terming it a “fiscal event” rather than a full budget, Kwarteng avoided the immediate scrutiny and forecasts of the Office for Budget Responsibility.
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Kids are simply the best thing in life. Not a fancy car, big house, fancy holidays…. Kids!! I feel bad for all of the adults out there who won’t or can’t have kids. Who will mind them when they are old???
@Paulco: sweet lord above did you really just say that?? Having a child doesn’t guarantee you somebody to look after you when you are old. There is no law saying your adult child has to stay by your side, there are a lot of adults estranged from their parents for various reasons! I never wanted kids and I don’t worry about who will look after me when I get older, that’s what my pension and savings are for. Kids are not the be all and end all of life for everyone, and nobodies life is worthless because they didn’t go down the parenthood route either. Your outlook on life is very closed if that’s the case and you are the one we should all pity if that’s the only message you are feeding your children.
@Paulco: Kids are amazing, but I want to choose when I have mine. Access to safe abortion is very important.
@Paulco:
her body her choice
@Louise Tracey: eh it’s not supposed to be used as a contraceptive if that what you’re suggesting.
@Paulco: they are the best things in the world for those who want them, some of us quite simply don’t. I have spent my entire life being told I would change my mind about that someday, I never have and I’m well beyond the ticking clock stage, no regrets. Also, having a child so as to have someone to look after you in your old age is by far one of the most selfish things a person can do in my opinion.
@Paulco: Any volunteers to mind me when I’m older? Not sure how I’ll cope.
@Sean McCarthy: I didn’t suggest that at all
@Sean McCarthy: where did she suggest that?
@GERARD KENNELLY: that silly argument has been debunked. The baby is separate as you well know but choose to ignore
@Sheila McNulty: you want to give a foetus the same rights as a pregnant woman?
@Paulco: I have 2 kids and am FULLY and UNRESERVEDLY supportive of the choice of having an abortion! Not sure why both things can’t coexist.
@Paulco: irrelevantly assuming that people who have abortions don’t already have kids or plan to have them in the future? I’m willing to bet that the vast majority of the 18,000 abortions were women who fell into that category.
@Séan Ó’Múrchú: a foetus cannot survive on its own. If a pregnant woman does not want to go ahead with the pregnancy then that’s her choice and none of your business.
@Brian Madden: That’s the problem with pro-birthers, they can’t differentiate
@Brian Madden: a foetus cannot live on its own… Not sure if you’re aware, but a newborn can’t survive on its own either, but it would be against the law to neglect that baby.
@Anna Carr: Not sure if you’re aware but a newborn doesn’t need to be fed, get oxygen and get rid of its waste through another humans body and can be looked after by anyone.
@Brian Madden: A new born baby can’t survive on its own either. Silly comment.
@Diarmuid Hunt: hi there. Was wondering when you were going to pop up. You spout nonsense. I don’t engage with 1d10ts.
@Justin Gillespie: a newborn baby can be looked after by anyone. A foetus is dependent whilst in the womb. You should have payed more attention in first year biology class.
@Jo H: another cat lady in the making?
@Anna Carr: Try not replying then or making comments that are easily shown to be silly.
@Brian Madden: choosing not to have children or, worse, terminating an unborn life should not be undertaken lightly. My children are what I value most in life. I am glad I have not had that opportunity.
@Paulco: such an insensitive comment from someone who obviously hasn’t been through the hardships of complicated birth.
@Dermot N Killian: in the making? I already have the cat! I also have a good job, lots of friends, a great social life and many hobbies! You also assume that because I don’t have or want kids I’m single? It might come as a surprise to you but there are men who don’t want kids either.
@Dermot N Killian: I don’t have children. Nor do I want to be a father. It’s a personal choice. A woman deciding to terminate a pregnancy is also her personal choice and none of our business.
@GERARD KENNELLY: A baby is not her body you ignoramous.
@Jo H: But getting pregnant with no intention on bringing that person into the world is not one of the most selfish things?
@Brian Madden: Call a person a ‘fetus’ and abrakababra! they cease to be a Human being. Sleep well Brian Madden.
@Mónica Pascoal: Me too. But it should be a crisis last option, not a handy personal choice. The baby you are killing is not part of you.
@Brian Madden: The PERSON who is killed can very well survive. This bloody well IS my business. And the business of the government and law agencies of the state.
@Diarmuid Hunt: gombeen comment. You obviously have no idea when a ‘foetus’ pre-birth could live independently if he/she we allowed to.
@Jo H: Don’t get pregnant then you muppet
@Brian Buckley: Before 12 weeks? Really? Yeah, I’m the gombeen.
@Justin Gillespie: He and others seem to be arguing that they expect someone else to look after them. Maybe a few cooking lessons would be a better use of their time instead of them assessing people in their lives as slaves.
@Brian Buckley: would you say that to a woman who was raped?? I very much doubt so, their choice to not get pregnant is very much removed from them and they are at the mercy of emergency contraception.
@Louise Tracey: Choosing when to have them is one thing. In this case it’s a euphemism for choosing whether they live or die.
@Brian Buckley: I don’t intend to Brian! Nor do I intend to judge others on their own decisions. And well done on such a well thought out, articulate, mature contribution to the conversation
@Brian Buckley: nope, it’s none of your business.
@Louise Tracey: ” Access to safe abortion” … It’s not very ‘safe’ for the baby who is dismembered!!.
@Louise Tracey: ‘safe abortion’… it’s never ‘safe’ for the baby who is murdered, in abortion, two go in and only one come out alive!!!
@GERARD KENNELLY: “her body her choice” … yes, ‘her’ body her choice, however, the child’s body does not ‘belong’ to her. so, NOT her ‘choice’ to kill!
@Brian Madden: It has the same right to life as the ‘woman’ who want’s to dismember it.
@Brian Madden: Just because the little one is depending on you, this does Not give you the ‘right’ to kill it, in fact someone who thinks this is alright, is beyond sick!
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: ” That’s the problem with pro-birthers, they can’t differentiate” .. nope, that’s the problem with pro-death shower, they think TWO people = ONE person!
@Brian Madden: Just because someone is dependent on you, does NOT give you the ‘right’ to murder them
@Fi Wyse: @Diarmuid Hunt:” would you say that to a woman who was raped” Why murder a baby just because it’s ‘father’ was a criminal?
@Mónica Pascoal: it’s lack of “coexist” is the problem
@Maria: you are deluded, no woman should be forced into a pregnancy after a rape, if you choose to do it if it happened to you then fair play but many wouldnt. And if you decided that you couldn’t, I wouldn’t judge you either! Because it’s not my problem plain and simple, keep your nose out of other people’s business that doesn’t concern you.
@Louise Tracey: wouldn’t it be better and whole safer then Louise to take the necessary precautions before sex .
@Jo H: I take enormous pleasure in being there to support my parents as they get older. It’s not a guarantee but if you’re good parents it’s likely that your kids will want to be there for you. There’s nothing selfish about that. It’s how older generations are taken care of in many different cultures all over the world. I don’t expect my kids to be there when I get old and I didn’t have them for that reason but I do feel a great comfort knowing they’ll want to be there and have told me so. I have 2 daughters and fully support abortion by the way.
@Declan Doherty: no argument with you on that front Declan, both my parents are deceased. One after a long illness where myself and my siblings provided care (both before and after them becoming ill) but when really ill they were full dependent on us, and we were there to give that. The other died young, so the scenario didn’t present itself. My issue is with the people who will say “if you don’t have kids, who will look after you?”, it’s just not a reason to have kids in my book.
@Jo H: Fair enough Jo. I agree it shouldn’t be a reason to have kids. Sorry you had to nurse your parents through such illness. It’s tough watching them get old and sick. The circle of life that none of us can avoid. We can only hope for a quick end with minimal suffering when our time comes !
@Paulco: Kids are only a great thing for those that want them. I’ve known since I was 7 that I never wanted to be a mother. Why would you feel bad for me, when I’ve avoided becoming a mother – something I’ve never ever wanted to be?
That’s like saying “oh, I feel bad that you’ve never been seriously injured in a car accident!”
@Dermot N Killian: I knew at 7 I never wanted to be a mother. When I discovered abortion existed at about 12/13, I knew that it was the right option for me, if I ever found myself pregnant.
I’m grateful the option to terminate is there, in case it’s ever needed.
@Barbara Coleman: Why assume that those of us who are pro-choice don’t take the necessary precautions?
Take a guess at how many abortions I’ve had? And I’ve decided that every pregnancy I experience will end in abortion.
@Declan Doherty: very true, it comes to us all. Thank you for the kind words
18 thousand. I knew we were been lied too. Was I the only smart one in the room people. Your elected officials all lied too you. May God have mercy on their souls.
@ggg: Not sure how smart you are. It’s ‘to’ and not ‘too’.
@Sal Paradise: is that all u have to point out sad person
@Sheila McNulty: it’s also “being” and not “been”.
@ggg: That’s from 2019 to 3022. 4 years.
That’s about the same that we’re travelling to access abortions.
What is it you think the electorate didn’t know? That there would be people that would access the service we all voted for?
@ggg: You forgot the ? at the end of your question, too. Punctuation is important for clear understanding. So is a getting a quality education.
@ggg: You were never a smart one in any room. You can’t post the bible-bashing shyte that you do and be considered ‘smart’.. quite the opposite. ‘God’ doesn’t give a monkey’s about them.. better than being born into the Catholic Church to have priests molesting them.
@ggg: I know, I was shocked too
@Sheila McNulty: Plenty more to point out but thought I’d start with that. Sort of debunks the “smart” part.
Btw, your caps lock button seems not to be working.
@Sal Paradise: At least they got “their” right
@ggg: you are not smart at all. Take a bow. How could you contemplate the vast amount of reasons people get abortions, bless your tiny brain.
@SolidSid: U reall should look at your attitude sad man
@Sheila McNulty: You should really look at some school books and give the phone back to a grown-up.
@Sal Paradise: We all know how smart you are gombeen.
@ggg: your preist lied to you, there are no such things as gods
@ggg: ” Your elected officials all lied too you”, yes, they did, they really want to remove the 12 week limit, because, I’ve been informed, organ trafficking is their real end-game. Unfortunately, the sheeple are so very blind!
@Maria: oh well if you’ve been ‘informed’! Who by, just for clarity?
@Jo H: The Vatican. They’re livid at all these potential paedo-victims not being given a chance to experience their ‘love’.
This is what you voted for Ireland.. Happy now??
RIP.
@Seamus Balfe: Yes. The country voted to give women access to abortion. This is precisely what the country wanted so therefore we’re happy with the result.
@Seamus Balfe: absolutely, thanks for asking
@Seamus Balfe: Yes, we are very happy that women in Ireland are treated with respect and can make their own medical decisions.
@Peter Slattery: Happy with the thousands of abortions U are a sad person
@Seamus Balfe: Yep! We voted for access to safe abortion. Remember, abortion has gone on in Ireland since humans racked up here first. Thankfully now the abortions are not of the horrendously dangerous ‘backstreet’ type. This legislation didn’t ‘bring in’ abortion. It just made it safe.
@Sheila McNulty: Happy that women have the right to choose? Absolutely!
@Seamus Balfe: Yes!
@Seamus Balfe: Yes, I’m relieved that women don’t have to travel anymore.
@Seamus Balfe: delighted seamus,all the canvassing and educating ignorant people like yourself that abortion is not black and white paid off
@sean o’dhubhghaill: not safe for the unborn baby
@Tom Mullally: you mean collection of tissue?
The Yes campaign really displayed a masterclass on how to conduct a campaign and convince a large cohort of sceptical voters that the vote was largely about cases of FFA and rape which in reality made up a tiny percentage of cases and could have been dealt with with a different ammendment. The 3 day wait was also heavily promoted to these voters, but was clear that this was always going to be temporary.
@Longlin: How can that be true considering the actual legislation?
Everyone knew it was a 12 week limit. You don’t know about FFA usually prior to 12 weeks.
The 3 day limit wasn’t part of the Referendum campaign, all that did was ask should be we remove the 8th, we didn’t vote on the legislation.
Where was the actual legislation debated prior to the referendum?
@Tricia G: we voted to give a woman the choice to terminate her pregnancy up to 12 weeks. We know what we voted for. 2/3 of voters voted yes.
@Tricia G: It’s true because of how the Yes side conducted their campaign. While the draft legislation was of course mentioned (including the 3 day wait period), the main emphasis by the Yes side in all media debates was women’s stories of FFA, rape and health implications.
Smartly in their case, they tended to stay away from the 99% of abortions which did not fit this description. People forget that opinion polls in years prior to the referendum showed the majority of people in the pro life category, so they did very well to turn many voters, unlike the No campaign which performed terribly in my opinion.
@Longlin: as an electorate we decided that our women shouldn’t have to travel and we realised that sourcing abortion pills on the Internet was unsafe. We knew that abortion was up to 12 weeks irrespective of the reason was on the ballot paper.
@Brian Madden: sad country that people cant take responsibility for there sexlife in this day & age ( this is not including someone raped) why so many abortions ?
No doubt the three day waiting period will be done away with and this report cited. I’m not surprised and no doubt it won’t be the last assurance that was made during the referendum to be gotten rid of.
Ughh… I give up. I’m thankful that I don’t have such a warped sense of entitlement. Go ahead ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the spoils of your desp1c@ble war and you will someday reap what you have sown. The mother demands balance in nature, so in order to have your sorry way, there will always be a price. Sleep tight little innocents.
@Anna Carr: All right, settle down there, Helen Lovejoy.
@Peter Slattery: x-D best comment!
@Peter Slattery: omg hahahaha. You’re so hilarious. I’d say you’re great craic altogether.
1 Elective, life changing procedures are never done on the first consultation. Is there any reason why the second consultation can’t be by phone, with the prescription emailed to a local pharmacy?
2 Conscientious objection is a human right under the UN & EU charters and the Irish constitution. You cannot be forced to do something when you have sound reasons to not want to. Interestingly this Act recognises this for medical/nursing/midwifery but denies it to pharmacists.
@Pharmy: If they would have outright abolished concientious objection I’m sure they would have. As it is I suspect it will be chiseled away until it is unofficially out of reach for all but the most determined medical staff while ‘legal’ in theory.
The culture of My needs and happiness above all else is alive and kicking in this sad little country that we have become.
@EMcD: certainly the needs of a human adult are more important than the needs of the small mass of cells (that have the potential to be a future human) that make up a pre 12-week foetus.
Pro-Life is just another hammer in the toolbox of the religious overseers who fear they are rapidly losing the control they had for centuries.
They care SFA about life, it’s just about control.
Good riddance.
@Ciaran Foster: For me it has nothing to do with religion, I just think that 50 women every day in the past year in this country had an abortion is pretty depressing, I’m a a woman and all on for women’s rights but I really thought the way some people celebrated when the repeal vote was carried was sickening, celebrating as if we had just won the World Cup.
It’s like the liberal Americans when they oppose the death penalty but yet champion abortion …I personally thinking ending any life (even if you think they’re just a bunch of cells) should really be the last resort , and I think the three day wait should really be upheld so women are 100% sure this is the choice they want to make.
@EMcD: Em it’s not the past year that 18,000 figure is for. It’s for the past 4 years. So that’s maybe 12 a day max. And how many were travelling for abortions prior to that. I mean were you ok with us just exporting the problem? Out of sight out of mind? It’s ok as long as it’s not happening in my country? We celebrated because finally the constitution did not exert any entitlement over a woman’s body anymore. It wasn’t a case of now that abortion is legal, everyone has to have one. But it meant that women didn’t have to try to travel or go through an unwanted pregnancy because they had no other option. Especially as that wasn’t in the original constitution but it was already an amendment. Look I’m very much of the opinion that I don’t believe it’s a choice I’d ever make for myself in 99% of circumstances but that does not mean I have the right to make that choice for anyone else.
I wonder how many of the 18,000 babies could have been saved if the government had increased its help to women who found themselves pregnant.More effort needs to be put into saving life’s rather than increasing the number of babies being killed, sorry terminated.Whether that’s financial, medical or being help along the way by other people or being given the chance to have someone who would look after baby. One only has to look at the profits that companies are making in pushing a culture of death rather than life
@David Martin: We should be helping women in difficult situations who find themselves pregnant and want to have a child aswell as providing safe access to abortions, they’re not mutually exclusive
@Diarmuid Hunt: A safe access to abortion, I think not how many of the 18,000 babies deserved to die !!! We have people spending a fortune trying to conceive, a long list of people waiting to adopt a child, etc, and people think it’s ok to get rid of their baby, sorry I don’t agree
@David Martin: You don’t have to.
@David Martin: You don’t have a choice about it. The law has been voted in. You can complain to the letters pages all you want. It won’t change anything. You are wasting your time.
What a sad selection of self serving weaklings, who would invalidate children, with extreme prejudice, just because they are ‘inconvenient’ at their time of life/style.
@Ed Brennan: Children aren’t an “inconvenience”. Having children changes absolutely everything about your life. This idea that kids are just a blip in your life is the most disengenious lie that the Anti-Choice side say. And the reason it fails is because it’s such an obvious lie.
Having children is literally the biggest event in peoples lives. So no, they’re not just an “inconvenience”.
@Tricia G: it’s a big change yeah. And if people aren’t ready for it adoption is there as an option. No need to take the life of the child.
@Podge: Only a man would blithely say “why not adoption” .
Let’s walk through the 9 months of pregnancy. The impacts on a person’s body. Their job, their colleagues, their family, their friends,their acquaintances. Constantly having to explain to people.
Nine months of discomfort, possible serious complications, high blood pressure, Hemorrhoids etc.
And then, after all that, the added trauma of a birth etc.
You say “adoption” like it’s a simple solution. But it’s clear you’ve never actually considered what’s involved.
@Tricia G: my partner recently had a baby. I know all too well what’s involved. And I know what’s involved in an abortion. And adoption results in everyone making it out alive.
@Podge: If I got pregnant and carried it to term, I would be kicked out of my parents house, because they don’t want to be grandparents. This would result in my losing my job. So I’d be homeless and unemployed.
But hey, it’s all fine, because I can just give it up for adoption, right?
Never mind the fact that I despise the idea of pregnancy and always have. Everything related to it disgusts me. To the point that I would rather die than carry to term.
So yes, tell me again how being forced to carry to term for adoption, which would actually result in my death, is better than allowing me to terminate, so that I don’t end up homeless and unemployed?
It is not right for the State to tell any woman she must wait 3 days to have her fully legal abortion, which she freely decided was in her best interest and the unborn ( unwanted ?) child.
@Don Hogan: Best interest of of the child ? HELLO
@Sheila McNulty: no child should be forced to be born to parents that didn’t want it.
@Sheila McNulty: Go back to high-school biology class. A pre 12 week old fetus is not a child. It’s 6cm long.
@Nicky O’Donnell: I understand your point, and people are free to describe it as a fetus as long as they are consistent in their language and not hypocritical.
In reality the word “fetus” is rarely mentioned outside abortion debates or biology class though. In wanted pregnancies, it’s nearly always referred to a baby and I never heard the word fetus being used by any of the doctors or nurses during my wife’s pregnancies. I wager that most of the ones getting uppity about the word “baby” will use it themselves when it’s outside of the abortion debate context.
@Jules: “forced to be born” is a new one on me. How dare we force people to continue being alive.
@Longlin: Words are descriptive not prescriptive.
@Jules: It’s a sad reflection on the adults here if the child is better off dead than being born in less than ideal circumstances.
How many of us commenting here would have made that cut?
@Podge: lol
@Jules: What if you were that child?
@Justin Gillespie: ‘less than ideal’. You are talking absolute balderdash about a multitude of scenarios over which you can have no knowledge. So but out and stop trying to pontificate to others on matters that affect them greatly and directly and not you at all. You’re another bible-basher who bangs on about right to life when your church subjected kids to some of the most horrific abuse possible. Do one.
This is so evil and manipulative. So many women have changed their minds in that 3 day wait period. They want to get rid of it so that women go through with the abortion on impulse during that first appointment. Absolutely sickening.
@Aisling: Where is your citation proving that claim? Why should those that are forced to travel, have to travel twice? Why do you support a 2 tier health system?
@Aisling: No woman chooses abortion on impulse.
@Aisling: what a woman does with her body is none of your business.
@Aisling: for the love of sweet Jesus please show me where it says they will be forced to make a decision at the first appointment. Also, can you share your stats on women who have changed their mind?
@Aisling: what utter nonsense, any women seeking this service has already thought long and hard about it and her decision is made
Almost all abortions are shamefully about the unborn being an inconvenience. How about taking real responsibility for your own actions instead of making the unborn pay the price? The very few that are not about inconvenience, could be managed individually. The three day wait should stay, maybe it’ll save a few lives.
@Annie Kate: I’m on the best birth control available. Therefore, I’m taking responsibility.
However, if I end up pregnant, I have the following choices:
Continue, give birth, and in the process become homeless and jobless, with zero family support.
Kill myself, given that being pregnant is the worst possible thing I could ever imagine happening to me.
Terminate, and remain a happy, contributing member of society.
Based on the fact that these are the *only* choices available for me, I will always terminate if I find myself pregnant!
@Emit Relevart: Your taking only partial responsibility with “the best birth control available”, it’s not a mystery how pregnancy happens.The option of abortion you have is legal, but is still immoral. You “forgot” the option of Adoption. Everything else you say in your reply is just an excuse (all be it very dramatic) not a reason. Your “it’s all about you attitude” says it all
My body, my choice, so I refused the Covid Vaccination. Also, I’m a Smoker. Horrors. But the same mantra didn’t apply. I wonder why? I’m constantly being accused of murdering all the people I’ve ever been in contact with.
@TheQueenofHibernia: no one cares what you do darling
@TheQueenofHibernia: A baby is not your body. Not your choice.
@Brian Buckley: I think you should zip it Brian and stop calling people names as you did in a number of your comments above. Women should have a choice and that is nothing to do with you.
@Anne: if a farmer wants to own a slave it’s nothing to do with me (unless I am the slave) but if course I’d be up in arms about it.
@Brian Buckley: Then, if I get pregnant, I will choose to revoke it’s permission to make any use of my body. If it can’t survive as a result of my choice, that’s not my problem.
Et nulli noceatis, facite quod vultis. ter tribus.
It’s the greatest abomination of humanity throughout all generations. 18,000 and growing. Doesn’t sound restrictive to me. Clearly murder, even former abortionists day it. Chech these videos out:
Matthew 18:6: But whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe in Me to fall, it were better for him that a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.
@Michael Holland: I daresay the Magdelene Laundries experience would have been a hell of a lot worse. You lot are great at protecting in the womb but I bet you still turn up to the altar of paedophilia.
@Michael Holland: Oh right.. so you turn a blind eye to the horrific record of paedophilia within the church – perpetrated by many of ‘Gods’ representatives on earth and protected by those at the very top of the church – because they’re only human, right? But you make it your mission to lecture to others about a wholly individual decision that will have no impact on anyone but that person themselves. The moral superiority is badly misplaced on you lot I tell thee.. you should all be ashamed for your continued support and defence of an institution that caused untold harm here throughout our history. You could be meeting up with Satan yet fella.
@SolidSid: eegit comment. Go away pointless toad.
@Michael Holland: is abusing children and covering it up and protecting the abusers like the Catholic Church did the same as causing little ones to fall, if so, Matthew, whoever he is, applies 100% to the church, don’t see any of the witchdoctors wearing millstones to atone, either locally or in the Vatican
@Brian Buckley: Is that a Commandment?
@Ben O’Hara: ya, it applies to everyone that causes harm to little ones. Not sure where I wrote that I don’t condem abusers..!?
@SolidSid: It will apply to everyone that causes harm to little ones. Not sure where I wrote that I don’t condem abusers..!?
@Michael Holland: you cited catholic nonsense, which implies, you still support an organisation which abused and covered up, how about condemning them instead of quoting their nonsense
@SolidSid: “perpetrated by many of ‘Gods’ representatives on earth” The ‘men’ who did those terrible things in the Church, along with those who covered them up, do NOT represent God on this earth, even if they pretend to do so. However, people often chose to stay in the Church in-spite of those ‘men’, because, it really is the true Church founded by Christ. Do not let those fake ‘representatives cause you to leave.
@Maria: And you call people sheeple here. Your church is run by paedophiles and you’re on here peddling their dogma. Keeping the production line going for them is your goal it seems.
I’m waiting with bated breath to see how Simon Covney is going to justify rubber stamping this legislation. Based on last time I imagine he’ll fold like a deckchair the minute his moral qualms come into conflict with his political position.
Your body, your choice. I would never have the cheek to tell another woman what she could or could not do with her own body.
What you decide is right for you, Great but do not inflict your belief’s on others.
@Jacqueline McCabe: have you been engaging in discourse around this topic for long? Has no one ever outlined to you that nobody has the right to do whatever they want with their own body when it impacts someone else’s right (like the right to life). There’s even cases where we don’t allow people to do certain things with their bodies even when it doesn’t directly impact someone else. And I’m sure there are plenty of scenarios where you would inflict your beliefs on people and stop them from doing things with their bodies. This slogan of my body my choice doesn’t hold up to the most basic scrutiny.
@Jacqueline McCabe: Which is of course itself inflicting your belief on others by dictating what they can and cannot say…
@Podge: I have been pro choice since the 80′s
@Jacqueline McCabe: the fact that you’ve been pro-choice for 40 years and simply parrot empty slogans is astonishing. I don’t know if you’ve ever even tried to understand the pro-life position.
@Maria: Not nearly as long as your church has been torturing living, seeing, feeling, breathing women and children.
“Abortion will be safe, legal and rare” – Leo Varadkar, 2018.
Despite his protestations, I’m sure Mr Donnelly is happy his own mother decided not to take her son’s eventual advice on facilitating killing unborn children.
Not the politicians
I could have done a 5 minute review and told you that, why have we elected such a crop of spineless toads that they can’t come to a decision on anything?
@Brian Madden in irish law a baby in the womb is called an unborn child not a foetus…so use the right words….
It’s also a double homicide in this country if a pregnant woman of 28 weeks is murderd…her unborn child is considered a victim of murder…that needs to be changed to from conception instead of 28 weeks and imprison all that murder unborn children…
Takes about 3 weeks to get a doctors appointment currently
The pro abortionists are scared…they know another campaign and all the gains will be undone…
@William slevin: The pro-abortionists are scared of their kids running into people like you, yes. Paedo protectors. You’re spelling out the law on one hand then saying how it should be changed to suit your opinion on the other. You need to get over it anyway, we had a vote and the people had their say.
And everyone should have some sort of roof over their heads, free face painting and a roundtrip city break to the moon.
I’d like to thank the Journalist for the photo selected of Leo. Appreciate the shade thrown ;)
Jesus! On both sides of this debate, this country is full of absolute donkeys.
Leo the leak is a woman hater in full view
have your say