The forthcoming abortion legislation will include a clause stating that if any woman has an abortion, she may be sent to prison for up to 14 years. So let’s get this clear. If a 15-year-old girl is raped but is not suicidal and cannot afford to travel to the UK, she can be sent to prison for up to 14 years. Now I know this is absolutely dreadful but I equally know that there will never be such a conviction and no woman will ever go to prison for this. It is pure governmenl hypocrisy. It’s intended to appease the pro-life advocates.
In 2002 the government passed the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2002, which is known as the Criminal Trespass legislation. I remember appearing on a radio programme at the time responding to a government TD and I argued that this was a racist piece of legislation aimed exclusively at Travellers – the TD said it was aimed at anybody who trespassed on public land. I think that was the first occasion when I used the word genocide to describe our government’s actions towards Travellers (taking genocide as meaning the deliberate acts of a group aimed at eliminating an entire race or group simply because of their race or ethnic standing). Since then, numerous Travellers have been charged and convicted of offences of trespassing on public lands and many have lost their homes as a result of this trespass. This is despite the fact that the local authorities in question have not complied with their own obligations to provide halting sites or transient halting sites.
So when I ask is there hypocrisy in Irish politics, what do you think?.
Kevin Brophy
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