In This Week’s Issue:

Same Day, Two Votes: 23 TDs vote to protect foxes and for motion to end all legal protections for unborn babies

There have been few days of late in the Dáil that have revealed more about the state of Irish politics than this Wednesday, crystallised by votes on both foxhunting and abortion.

There are many abortion opponents who also identify as animal rights advocates, but Wednesday’s Dáil vote revealed politicians who saw no contradiction in supporting fox protections while simultaneously voting for a motion to progress a Bill which would remove all remaining legal safeguards for unborn babies, allowing abortion up to birth on request.

It’s difficult to believe that any member of the Dáil is unaware of the profound violence abortion inflicts on an unborn child, or of the many women who speak of deep regret following their abortion. That legislators, fully conscious of these realities, can nonetheless dismiss the value of human life while making an emphatic stand for foxes is extraordinary. We are certainly living in a period defined by contradictions.

The 23 TDs who voted on Wednesday to protect foxes and for the motion that would reinstate the extreme pro-abortion bill referred to above, are: Ciarán Ahern, Ivana Bacik, Richard Boyd Barrett, Ruth Coppinger, Jen Cummins, Aidan Farrelly, Gary Gannon, Sinéad Gibney, Eoin Hayes, Seamus Healy, Rory Hearne, Paul Murphy, Ged Nash, Cian O'Callaghan, Robert O'Donoghue, Roderic O'Gorman, Liam Quaide, Pádraig Rice, Conor Sheehan, Marie Sherlock, Duncan Smith, Charles Ward, Jennifer Whitmore.

A California family is welcoming an unexpected newborn after the mother discovered she was pregnant during a routine pre-surgical test ahead of the removal of a 22-pound ovarian tumour.

More astonishing still, the baby was found to be growing outside the uterus in an abdominal ectopic pregnancy, a condition doctors say makes the child’s survival a medical miracle.

Suze Lopez, 41, from Bakersfield, California, has struggled with ovarian problems for years. Doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles were preparing to remove the massive ovarian cyst when they asked her to take a routine pregnancy test. The positive result stunned Lopez, who said she initially did not believe it. “I could not believe that after 17 years of praying and trying for a second child, that I was actually pregnant,” she said.

The ovarian tumour was so large, it masked the pregnancy, and she was completely unaware that she was also carrying an eight pound little boy. 

It’s a wonderful pro-life story and thankfully mother and baby are both doing really well. 

To read the full story on Live Action, click here

Peer sparks outrage over comments on assisted suicide and rights of unborn

Prominent peer and barrister Lord Falconer has told the House of Lords that “pregnancy should not be a bar” to assisted suicide - effectively asserting that no account should be taken of an unborn child’s right to life, even up to the moment of birth, if the mother seeks to end her own life through assisted suicide. Lord Falconer had an opportunity to qualify his remarks but chose not to. He has been heavily criticised by colleagues and on social media for what he said.

His comments, delivered in a calm bedside voice, underscore the growing coldness and indifference that pervades our culture - and why we urgently need to reevaluate where we’re heading and begin to reawaken respect for human life at every stage of development

Charles Leslie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton is a member of the British Labour Party. He served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice under Prime Minister Tony Blair.

You can watch him deliver his remarks here