The report of the Citizen’s Assembly which was published today contains few surprises. The vote for changing the 8th Amendment (the one acknowledging the right to life of the unborn, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother) was carried by 87%.
There appear to be three suggested outcomes.
1 They could allow the status quo to remain.
2 They could opt for reform or repeal. If the latter they could pass the task to the politicians to legislate for abortion.
3 Or they could keep the amendment but amend it to allow a more liberal abortion regime.
The chairperson has stated that they cannot simply recommend that the article be amended; they must come up with alternative wording. The final wording would then be sent to government who would decide if a further referendum is required.
In coming to their conclusion the assembly viewed 13,500 submissions then randomly sampled a selection. My understanding is that these are available on U tube in an effort to be as transparent as possible to the public.
The problem of using 99 citizens picked randomly is that they themselves have no guiding light to assist them. Indeed the church, represented by the Bishop of Limerick, was attacked on its record of child abuse negating input from that quarter which might have been helpful.
It is true that experts from other countries were called upon to give an account of their experience of enacting abortion laws to give members of the assembly the broadest experience of how these laws worked. The difficulty with these experts was that they were coming from places where some form of abortion was accepted. It would have been interesting to hear from countries where it is closely monitored or banned!
As you would expect the Bible defends the child in the womb and recognised its existence as separate (but dependant) of the mother (Psalm chapter 22 verse 10 and chapter 71 verse 6). Later in Psalm 139 we read “you knitted me together in my mother’s womb (verse 13).
In the New Testament, Nicodemus, who would have been familiar with these scriptures misunderstood Jesus when he said you must be born again. He had no doubt that there was a living child in the womb but had difficulty applying a spiritual rather than a physical application to Jesus‘s illustration (St John Chapter 3 verse 3).
It was a radical change in Nicodemus that was in view not just some tips on teaching! This seems to have taken place as we next read of him confidently witnessing for Christ (chapter 7 verse 50 and chapter 19 verse 39).
Abortion always means death. It is always a tragedy. Unlike the new birth which is always a blessing! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter Chapter 1 verse 3).
Let us make sure of the first birth and call upon the Lord to deal with the second!