Yesterday’s announcement by the UK Government that it plans to phase out the practice of telemedicine ‘home abortions’ is very welcome news.

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly should immediately announce a similar cessation of the practice here, on health and safety grounds and, in keeping with the promise of his predecessor that telemedicine ‘home abortions’ would come to an end at the same time that other Covid restrictions were lifted.

In England, emergency ambulance responses to complications arising from abortion related complications was shown to be three times higher since telemedicine was introduced. And research released in November 2021 revealed that more than 10,000 women had to receive hospital treatment following the use of medical abortion pills in England between April 2020 and September 2021.

For two years, the practice of telemedicine ‘home abortions’ has prevented women from receiving in-person examinations from their doctors prior to an abortion, making it more difficult to accurately verify the gestational stage of the pregnancy.

In addition to the very real health and safety concerns that the practice poses to women, telemedicine also undermines informed consent. Not having a face to face consultation with a doctor makes it much more difficult to detect situations where a woman is being coerced into having an abortion by a partner or associate – situations that sadly are not uncommon.

The Pro Life Campaign has run a several high profile initiatives over the past two years calling on the Minister for Health to end the dangerous practice of telemedicine, and pro-life members of the Oireachtas have consistently raised the issue in the Dáil and Seanad.

There is no justifiable reason why Stephen Donnelly should keep the practice going. It is imperative that he brings it to an end without delay.

News of the sudden death of MLA Christopher Stalford on Monday was greeted with shock and great sadness across the political divide in Northern Ireland.

The 39-year-old father-of-four served in the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2016, representing south Belfast.

The DUP politician was a pro-life champion and eloquent advocate for the right to life of unborn babies. He had become the lead sponsor in Stormont of the Bill to ban abortion where an unborn baby is detected to have a disability.

Mr Stalford voted pro-life on all 6 occasions that the right to life issue arose since his election to the Assembly. DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson paid tribute to his party colleague, saying he was “born to be a public representative”.

The DUP leader mentioned his last conversation with Mr Stalford member, saying: “I talked at length with Christopher on Friday night. He was passionate about Northern Ireland and wanted the best for his constituents. I was never to know how precious that conversation was to be.”

Alliance leader Naomi Long MLA said she found it hard to put into words her shock, sadness and devastation at Mr Stalford’s passing and said that despite their radically different stances on many issues they had “a warm, personal friendship”. She described Mr Stalford as a “genuine and funny person” who was dedicated to public service.

The Pro Life Campaign extends its deepest sympathies to Mr Stalford’s wife Laura and their four children at this very sad and difficult time, and we pay tribute to Mr Stalford’s selfless and consistent defence of the right to life. His sudden and unexpected death is a huge loss to the pro-life movement in Northern Ireland.

Twins born at 22 weeks in Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, who were given “zero chance of survival”, are expected to go home this week after almost five months in hospital.

At birth, the twins weighed just 500 grams, or 1.1lbs, and measured “the length of a king-size Mars Bar”, according to media reports.They were born almost a fortnight before the 24-week legal cut-off point for abortion in England.

Mom Jade says that when the babies were born, she was told by medical staff to prepare for the worst. “The doctor was so shocked, she told me she could see the membrane bulging, so the sac of water was basically showing. It was so scary. I knew I was 22 weeks, but I didn’t know about the viability thing. They told me they were going to admit me, but that I was probably having a miscarriage.”

While doctors continued to tell Jade she was “miscarrying,” she insisted, “it couldn’t be because I could feel the babies moving. I knew they were OK, but was being told they wouldn’t survive at this gestation.” She said that after birth “their little cries sounded like a tiny kitten.”

But five months on, the twins are all set for home. Jade says: “They’ll go down in medical history. I’m sure they’ll have a ward named after them because everyone is just amazed by them!”

Would you like to experience working with a pro-active Human Rights organisation?

If you would like, APPLY HERE to our exciting virtual  intern programme for students!

Participants on the programme will have an opportunity to network with other young people and develop skills in advocacy, campaign management and project planning.

Internships run for one-week periods and are suitable for second level (Transition year or older) and third level students.

Each intern will do 4 hours supervised work each day and will be working on areas such as social media, contact with members of the movement nationwide, project planning and contributing to support work for women and their babies.

Internships are not paid, however expenses will be covered.

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