The Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift famously suggested the impoverished Irish, burdened by parenthood, need not go hungry. All they had to do was sell their own babies as food, like livestock, to wealthy English landlords.
How appropriate I thought. After all, it would do us no harm to reflect on how we deal with our own children these days: more and more are being killed off before birth. While most Irish people voted for constitutional change to pave the way for abortion, it was quite different in the north.
They claimed women in the north of Ireland were being deprived of the right to kill their own children. Most of these little ones perished through the abortion pill. Imagine if these children had the right to be born? Sadly, there has been little political commentary on the rise, which has been highlighted by Precious Life and other pro-life campaigners.
Imagine missing out on the opportunity to kill your own child. Tut, tut, Jonathan Swift might have written had he been around today. Would he, in true Swiftian style, have proposed improving train services to advantage these women?
I would, along with Ms Horgan, laud any government measures that would make it easier for a woman to keep her child. One of the reasons that abortion is on the rise is that making it legal has made it seem normal. It has become a form of contraceptive after conception of a life. Many have bought into the lie that abortion is compassionate and empowers women. In fact, it wounds women, kills children. Abortion also wounds men, but it also suits quite a number of them: abortion is a one-way ticket out of responsibility.
