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SINN FÉIN IS not a pro-abortion party, Martin McGuinness has said today.
He was speaking to press during the party’s Ard Fheis, which attracted anti-abortion protesters outside the Royal Hotel and Theatre in Castlebar, Co Mayo.
Speaking to Clare Byrne on RTÉ Radio, McGuinness said: “We are an anti-abortion party but we are also a party that recognises where there is a great risk to the life of the mother”.
He said that could not be more evident than in the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar in Galway University Hospital last year. He said that the “polls on this issue clearly show that the people of Ireland recognise that where there is a grave risk to the life of the mother, something needs to be done, some legislation needs to be enacted”.
We are not a pro-abortion party and to suggest that is to totally and absolutely misrepresent the position
McGuinness added that he respects the rights of anybody to protest but some of the people who are protesting, work on the basis that where there is a risk to the life of the mother, that the life of the child should predominate.
I think that’s wrong, I can’t agree with that. And quite clearly there are circumstances where the lives of women are at grave risk and we have not got the legislation in place which can protect those women in those circumstances.
So I have a different view but I respect their view.
Asked would he support a free vote in the party on voting on the issue, he said the party has consistently taken a position that wherever a party policy is decided, it is incumbent on all members of the party to abide by the party decision.
He said that members of the party are able to express their own individual feelings on the issue, but “there is a responsibility on people whenever motions are passed at the Ard Fheis and particularly motions that the party feels is very important in terms of enacting legislation to save women’s lives who are at risk”.
I think it’s very very important that we have a discipline within the party and that we have members that are going to vote on the party position.
Today is the second day of the Ard Fheis, which is being attended by up to 2,000 grassroots members. Issues to be debated include the country’s abortion laws, the possibility of an all-Ireland football team and the economy, with 250 motions being debated overall.
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She got out easy enough but getting back into Trump’s America now might be a little tricker.
@winston smith: won’t be a problem, Trump likes grabbing pussys
@winston smith: President Trump has no problem with people entering USA in the proper legal manner and applying for a Visa.
@Steve Austin: is that why his travel bans have been so successful, bit like his businesses. Can you give me a Hell ya
@winston smith: I’ll take “what are feet for for 400 please”
@Steve Austin: is that why he signed an executive order preventing people who went through the proper channels from entering the US?
@Steve Austin: but people have a problem entering trumps America that’s why tourism is down bigly
I remember that Nat Geo Documentary about the cats and dogs that found their way home?
Homeward Bound I believe it was called.
@Brian Guilfoyle: he whisked it. simple.
There’s a voice that keeps on calling me……
@MARK O ‘LEARY:… until tomorrow I’ll just keep moving on
I hope she kept a catalogue of her travels..there is a film in it somewhere.
Cats, like all wool-bearing animals, instinctively travel North, where it’s warmer, and they won’t be so stuffy.
@Harry the Cat: I heard cats originate from a much warmer and dryer climate. North African/ Middle East type climate. They hate the cold and they hate water and the wet. They don’t have a woolly coat just a thin fur. They also get very confused when they see snow, some are scared, some go chasing after falling snow flakes. They’re not at home in the snow at all.
@Jack Bowden: ever heard of the snow leopard or the Siberian tiger?
@Harry the Cat: Canada is a lot colder than California. You got that in reverse mate.
@Robert Cullen: yeah I’m talking about the domesticated short hair cat.
@Harry the Cat: How is it warmer in the north you plum
@Shane, Harry lives in South Africa.
Well that’s about the same amount of time you’d spend waiting to see a gyno in Cork..and whole story about a cat but nothing about the mismanaged services maternity services in Cork.
Nothing about managers and consultants only working Monday to Friday ( because we all know, babies born over the weekend are a nuisance), nothing about their enormous salaries for this 9-5 job? nothing about overworked nurses trying to deal with the huge amount of babies to be born. Nope. Nothing.
@jenni: what the actual f?
@Damocles: Think it’s called reality on this small benighted island…..
@Kerry Blake: it’s a puff piece about a cat. Times and places.
That’s all well and good Jenni but it doesn’t explain how the cat got to Canada.
Ryan Air of course!
I’d hazard a guess she walked or possibly jumped into the back of a pick up truck for warmth
‘Adobted’ by another family that moved to Canada?
Somebody knows.
Ryan Air?
Probably walked
Cats are like that?
have your say