No that’s not fair, with this country’s experience of keeping dirt out of sight behind the walls of convents and washing away your sins with good red plenary carbolic, everything should be shriven clean and bleach blessed by a committee of an obstetrician and two psychiatrists. In the bad old days women were driven into the Magdalen laundries now they will drive themselves there fully authorised with a suicidal ideation note. It will be a modern version of the same loveless world offering the same loveless solution. There will be no redress boards however, you have to admit there’s a saving there.
6 comments:
I'm embarassed to ask, but could you explain for lay readers?
Hi Elisa:
No problem.
The Magdalene Laundries were places where women and girls who were troublesome or pregnant outside marriage were either sent or took refuge there staying for varying lengths. All European countries had versions of this set up. They were also in America and were run by charitable organisations of the various religions. You probably are aware of similar institutions in Italy. "Shame" could be hidden away.
Such institutions were not unique to Ireland but were found all over Europe, Australia and America. By the late 1800's there were 300 in the U.K. and 41 in Ireland.
http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/MagdalenRpt2013
The executive summary gives an account of the lengths of stays which do not correspond to the rather lurid imaginings of anti-catholic elements. They were bad enough without that. Essentially pregnant girls and women were abandoned to the harsh and punitive penitential regime.
Now in ireland of the present day we propose to match that loveless solution with abortion on the grounds of suicidal feeling right up to the point of viability of the unborn child. This late term 'delivery' is reminiscent of the Kermit Gosnell case in America which is too horrible to even think about. Our Prime Minister(Enda 'Kermit' Kenny who is proposing this law claims that this will protect women even though a large percentage of psychiatrists insist that abortion is never a cure for suicidal feelings.
In every country in the world where direct assault on the life of the unborn was permitted in extreme cases the law has been continuously weakened to bring about abortion on demand.
Thank you, Ombhurbhuva. The Magdalene Laundries became well-known after the "The Magdalene Sisters" movie, but the information I found at the link you mentioned are much more interesting. And I did not at all get the pun about "Kermit" Kenny.
Kermit I’ always taken to be a joke name. There was Kermit the Frog ‘The Muppets’. But Kermit Gosnell is no joke but something of a serial killer. Babies that were born alive had their neck snipped by him. Google it.
A spokesman for our Prime Minister Enda ‘Kermit’ Kenny said that any babies born alive and damaged would be looked after by the state for the rest of their lives. My idea is that they could be trained in the fine art of pleat ironing and delicate fabric washing with post grad work in stain removal.
This is an interestig topic. Do you think that abortion should be banned by law —or are you rather saying that society should grow in the direction of supporting women who discover to be pregnant against their will?
I think both but with the law being directed at the suppliers i.e. clinics rather than individual women. These suppliers are detached from the emotion though some of them may be involved for ‘ideals’ of their own. The money is nice too.
However the main focus should be on helping women through a crisis.
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