Latest news with #EighthAmendment
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
As abortions triple, when will we admit that reluctant repealers were profoundly wrong?
Strange, isn't it, how often this pattern repeats? We are assured in stentorian tones that not only is something never going to happen, but it is scaremongering and manipulative even to suggest that it will. Then we are told that it has happened, and furthermore, it is unequivocally a good thing. Before the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, we were assured that all that would happen was that a similar number to the 2,879 women who travelled to England and Wales in 2018 would no longer have to do so. Then-tánaiste Simon Coveney believed the argument, though he said 'removing the equal right to life of the unborn from our Constitution [was] not something I easily or immediately supported'. In an oped, he said any woman choosing abortion after a three-day waiting period and other safeguards 'is very likely to have travelled to the UK or accessed a pill online in the absence of such a system being available in Ireland'. He and other reluctant repealers were promised that numbers of abortions would not rise rapidly and inexorably. The latest abortion figures show 10,852 abortions in Ireland in 2024 . There were 54,062 live births in 2024 . For every five babies born alive, one was aborted. READ MORE Is there no number of abortions that would be unacceptable? If one in two pregnancies was ending in abortion, would that be too many? UK Department of Health figures show the number of women giving Irish addresses for abortions halved between 2001 and 2018, with a 5 per cent drop from 2017. Numbers were dropping before Repeal, in other words. Even allowing for the tiny number in 2018 of Irish-based women having abortions in the Netherlands and those using illegal abortion pills, the rise in numbers of abortions is shocking. Some 55,000 of them have taken place in Ireland since Repeal. The reality is that restrictions on abortion reduce abortion numbers. US advocacy group Secular Pro-life has a useful summary of the evidence. Many studies claiming restrictive abortion laws don't lower rates overlook socio-economic factors. Most countries with strict laws have low economic development, and poorer nations tend to have higher abortion rates. This important confounding factor is often ignored. As a relatively wealthy liberal democracy that banned abortion, our abortion rates were much lower. Abortion numbers can triple, and still Ireland refuses to acknowledge that the reluctant repealers were wrong, wrong, wrong. The Eighth was saving lives in the thousands. We collect statistics on where abortions happen in Ireland and under what part of the legislation, and virtually nothing else. We seem to have zero interest in the reasons why women have abortions – whether it is poverty, lack of support, or housing. Is that because we don't want to look too closely at anything that might undermine the idea that abortion is just another healthcare procedure? At some level, people know well that abortion is unlike any healthcare procedure. English singer Lily Allen recently sang a flippant parody of My Way about not knowing exactly how many abortions she had. It was probably five. Many pro-choice people were shocked. The comments on the BBC video of the podcast she hosts with Miquita Oliver, who has also had 'about five' abortions, showed the conflict people felt. Some pro-choice people felt that by saying the only justification needed for abortion is 'I don't want a f**king baby', she had handed ammunition to the anti-abortion advocates. [ Breda O'Brien: Ableist legislation shows lives of those with Down syndrome are less valuable Opens in new window ] Others disagreed, with comments such as: 'It's important to support any abortions for any reason. If you start putting restrictions on who can have them, how many they're allowed, and how they must act when they've had them ... well, you're not pro-choice.' I am not interested in dumping on Allen or Oliver. Allen has spoken about losing her virginity at 12, about a 19-year-old friend of her father's who bought her drinks and 'had sex with me' when she was 14, and about living through her teens to her 30s in a haze of drugs, alcohol and mental ill-health. (By the way, we have no idea how many women are coerced into abortion, even though domestic violence campaigners tell us it happens in Ireland, including one under 18-year-old who was locked in a room and forced to take abortion pills.) Allen and Oliver are not alone in joking about abortion. Irish comedian Katie Boyle has a comedy show about her experience of having an abortion aged 34 in the US, which caused the presenters of the Morning Show on Ireland AM to laugh. Nonetheless, most people still react with shock when abortion is treated as contraception – or a joke. It reminds me of debating in the past with people who were adamantly pro-choice, who visibly flinched when the number of babies with Down syndrome who are aborted was mentioned . Their humanitarian, pro-disability rights instincts conflicted with their other deeply held beliefs about the right to choose to end early human lives. The problem is that while bans and restrictions on abortion did decrease rates, those of us who consider ourselves pro-life depended on the legal ban while underestimating how the culture was changing. To keep abortion figures low in a well-off democracy, we needed to persuade people to build a woman-friendly society where pitting women's rights against the next generation's right to life became an unthinkable and completely outdated dilemma. The failure to do so really is no laughing matter.
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Paul Hosford: Why no younger candidates are stepping up for the presidency in 2025
One of the stranger and lesser noted moments in recent Irish political history came a little over a decade ago. As Ireland became the first country in the world to legalise same sex marriage by popular vote, we affirmed that all love is equal. It sparked joyous scenes across the country and was a message that Ireland was a more inclusive space, one which valued everyone equally. However, on the same day as that referendum passed, one which enshrined in the Constitution the belief that everyone in Ireland was entitled to the same treatment, the public massively rejected the idea that a 34-year-old could be President. A second referendum that day on lowering the age of any prospective President to 21 was trounced by 73.1% to 26.9%. In truth, the running of that referendum was either a mistake or a conscious effort to give the public the chance to kick a government which had enacted austerity measures without risking the marriage equality vote, possibly both, and it played out in a campaign that was more non-existent than lacklustre. Indeed, possibly the only argument which cut through in any real way was a warning that should the referendum pass, we could be looking at President Jedward. The defeat of that referendum was very much a secondary concern to most that day, as marriage equality set the stage for the push for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment and civic groups led a coalition and energised a generation into the kind of action that only comes from the ground up, but can shake establishments. The repeal campaign came just months before the 2018 presidential election and with Michael D Higgins both hugely popular and a long-time proponent of abortion rights, there was never any question of an insurgent campaign to unseat him. But seven years later, it seems strange that nobody who led those campaigns, or came to the fore in them, is being mentioned as a possible candidate for the Áras. While recent campaigns have seen figures from civic society - Adi Roche, Joan Freeman, Derek Nally - and from the world of business - Sean Gallagher, Peter Casey, Gavan Duffy - launch campaigns of varying degrees of success, with just months to go in this year's election, those wishing to see themselves on the ballot have been few and far between. Constitutional Convention Obviously, a part of that comes down to one of the factors in why the age-based referendum was held at all. The vote on lowering the age actually had its origins in the same place the same-sex marriage vote did: the Constitutional Convention. Running from 2012 to 2014, it was a forum comprising 100 members; 29 members of the Oireachtas; four representatives of Northern Irish political parties; and 66 citizens along with a chair. It was tasked with a number of deliberations around what is the Constitution and options for changing it. In the end, it recommended three changes in relation to the President: 94% were in favour of giving citizens a say in the nomination process 78% agreed that citizens resident outside the state, including in Northern Ireland, should have the right to vote in presidential elections And 50% said to reduce the age of candidacy for presidential elections While the third option was run and the second continues to come and go on the political agenda, the first, which was nearly unanimous, has never really gone anywhere. Under the current rules, remember, anyone wishing to run must receive the support of at least 20 members of the Oireachtas or the backing of at least four local authorities — city or county councils. The system, by design, stops insurgent campaigns. Whereas civil society can form coalitions around social issues or policy priorities, without the backing of existing politicians, you or I have no chance of being President. Indeed, without the backing of their parliamentary party colleagues, many who would like to be President have been forced to accept it will not happen. The truth is that for most who come from outside the political sphere, the path to a nomination is nigh on unnavigable. If you've been a member of a civic group on an issue, chances are you've clashed with political parties who hold opposing views and, even if you haven't, without a clear and overwhelming consensus coming from the public, your chances of finding 20 Oireachtas members who are free to vote for you are pretty slim. This is a feature of the system, rather than a bug in its operation. The narrow route to a nomination is supposed to, in theory at least, act as something of a quality control mechanism. If someone who wants to be nominated has to first survive the body politic, the logic is that they are generally considered to be worthy of at least the public's consideration. That failsafe has proven itself in the eyes of its proponents this year, warding off at least one potential candidate's entry onto the ballot. Of course, then, there is the local authorities. While these are controlled up and down the country by coalition parties and opposition parties in different configurations, they are free to make their own minds up. In 2011, 25 councils gave nominations to candidates who made it to the ballot, while in 2018 it was 17 councils with Laois giving journalist Gemma O'Doherty her lone nomination. Convincing councillors to break with party nominees is possible, but takes work and a platform. But the narrow path to the Phoenix Park doesn't in and of itself explain the lack of civic and social figures being touted this time around, even speculatively. In part, it can be also attributed to a lack of major social movements since Repeal, particularly post covid. The role of the presidency While Repeal itself was hailed as a transformational moment in Irish history - and it was and remains felt particularly by those women who have availed of abortion healthcare in their own country and not in some far-off place - one wonders if its promise has been fulfilled, if its energy has been harnessed by the generation most associated with it, most galvanised by it. At present, the presidential field is former European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness in the Fine Gael corner and current TD Catherine Connolly with the the support of the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and assorted independents. Both are extremely capable, worthy candidates. But it is worth asking why, if the presidency is meant to reflect our society back to us, why is nobody younger at least trying? Ms McGuinness is 66, Ms Connolly 68. We have had two millennial Taoisigh, but at this point it will likely be 2039 by the time someone of my generation leads the state. In 1997 when she was elected, Mary McAleese was 46. In 2011, Mr Higgins was 70. There is, of course, the argument that the head of state needs a track record. That they need to have shown the Irish people that they can lead. That is a fair argument, but surely a conversation about the role can be had? Is it a reward for a life of service or a statement of who we are? Can it be both? There is a chance that one of the existing candidates or one unforeseen captures the imagination and electrifies supporters into a positive and energetic campaign. I hope that they do, because the alternative will be an election where even fewer than the 44% who voted last time will turn out. The conservation of energy is an absolute law, but it is worth asking where the energy created in the last decade has gone and whether anyone can harness it to run for the Áras?
Irish Independent
6 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Anti-immigration campaigner Derek Blighe given Probation Act after €500 payment to Irish Red Cross
Derek Blighe (44) of Croughevoe, Mitchelstown, Co Cork had objected to making a donation, as part of the Probation Act process, to specific charities on religious grounds after citing his faith and issues surrounding abortion. He was afforded the opportunity at Fermoy District Court last year to avail of the Probation Act by making a donation to the Irish Refugee Council. A conviction followed when he failed to donate the money. At a sitting of Cork Circuit Appeals Court last March, defence counsel Alan O'Dwyer BL explained that it was 'purely a religious matter.' He said that his client's difficulty was with the position taken by the Irish Refugee Council on the repeal of the Eighth Amendment to the Irish constitution in relation to abortion. Judge Helen Boyle told Mr Blighe that instead of paying €400 to the Irish Refugee Council he could instead pay €500 to Nasc. Nasc is an advocacy service which links migrants and refugees to their rights. Mr Blighe indicated his willingness at the time to make the contribution. However, Cork Circuit Appeals Court heard that the money had not been paid to Nasc. When the case was first mentioned, Mr Blighe told Judge Boyle that his faith did not permit him to donate the money to Nasc arising out of their stance on the unborn child. When the case came back before Judge Boyle, she asked Mr Blighe if he had the stipulated amount in court. The 44 year old said that he did and she directed that he hand over €500 to Gardaí. Judge Boyle then directed that the funds be allocated to the Irish Red Cross. Mr Blighe represented himself in court. At a previous court sitting, Inspector Jason Wallace said it was alleged that Mr Blighe had engaged in threatening and abusive behaviour during an incident at Abbeyville House, Fermoy, on December 22, 2023. Witness Christopher Gomez said he was duty manager at Abbeyville when it was being prepared as accommodation for migrants and a protest by people opposing its use for this purpose had been taking place for several months outside. Mr Gomez said he had ordered an oil delivery from a local company. When the delivery truck arrived at about 11am, he said Blighe approached the driver and spoke to him. He said Blighe then told him 'the driver's not going to give you oil' and the truck left. Mr Gomez contacted the oil company and a second truck was dispatched. He opened the gates when it arrived and the driver began making the delivery. Mr Blighe then began recording Mr Gomez with his phone and the court was shown footage he uploaded to Facebook in which he castigated Mr Gomez. In the video, Blighe can be heard telling Mr Gomez: 'You are a guest in this country. Shame on you. You should be ashamed. You will go down in the history books, you will go down in the sewers of Irish history. Go back to where you came from.' Mr Gomez said Mr Blighe live-streamed the incident which 'really traumatised me'. He later downloaded the footage and provided it to Gardaí when making a complaint. He said he had been an Irish citizen for 20 years and had 'never experienced anything like this before'. Garda Dane Murphy said he visited the protest at Abbeyville later that day and the atmosphere was 'borderline volatile'. He said Mr Blighe made a statement regarding the incident on January 9 but replied 'no comment' to every question he was asked. Judge Roberts said he found the 'black and white' attitude towards immigration 'hard to understand'. He noted that, from an Irish perspective, generations of Irish people had emigrated and 'the vast majority of them illegally'.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Lawsuit: Tippecanoe jail, medical officials ignored dying inmate
LAFAYETTE, IN — The son of a Delphi man who died last year after spending nearly a week in the Tippecanoe County Jail has filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against Sheriff Bob Goldsmith, several jail employees, and employees of the company the jail hires to provide medical care to inmates. The lawsuit alleges deliberate indifference to 38-year-old Troy Dean Pownell, in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment, in describing how Pownell was treated as he and cell mates tried repeatedly to rouse help for the man's "severe and unrelenting abdominal pain for two days." Pownell, who court records show had a history of low-felony substance abuse- and theft-related cases, had been arrested on a warrant on April 2, 2024, after missing a court date. "Although he battled drug addiction, Troy entered the jail in good health," attorneys wrote in a news release. "Four days later, Troy began to experience abdominal pain. By the early morning hours of April 8th, his abdominal pain was excruciating." In addition to Goldsmith, the lawsuit names as defendants Jail Commander Thomas Lehman; Assistant Jail Commander Carrie Morgan; and jail officers Bailey Clark, Makenzie Cheever and Cole Zimmer. Quality Correctional Care is an Indiana-based company that contracts for inmate health services in 65 of the state's 92 counties, according to its website. It, too, is a defendant in the lawsuit, along with two of the company's licensed practical nurses, Monica Flores and Briana Frazier. Pownell's son, Troy Allen Pownell, was named special administrator of his father's estate and is the plaintiff. "I miss my dad every day and just wish they would have helped him when it was so obvious that he needed to go to the hospital," the younger Pownell said in a statement. "We hope this case helps change how people with medical problems are treated when they are in jail." The lawsuit alleges the following facts: When Pownell was booked into the jail, two initial medical assessments found no concerns or symptoms, and he did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Later in the day on April 3, he began to feel ill. For two days, Pownell began to feel worse and spent most of his time on the mattress on the floor of his cell, according to video. By the afternoon of April 6, he was moved after he began to feel worse, dry heaving and with stomach pain. He spent all day the next day in his cell and complaining about severe abdominal pain. Although Pownell had told nurse Flores shortly after arrival that he had used heroin, the lawsuit quotes the World Health Organization as saying opioid withdrawal would have begun eight to 24 hours after use; Pownell's symptoms did not peak until April 8, nearly six days after he entered the jail. Pownell and his cell mates reportedly attempted to alert nurses and jail officers repeatedly, including banging on the cell door and his "begging to go to the hospital," but they were ignored or quickly dismissed. Flores "wrote off Troy's symptoms as 'faking' something serious" and merely gave him electrolytes. By then, according to the lawsuit, the man had to lean on the wall, the bunk beds or the small table in the cell. He was spending his time, according to records and videos, vomiting and spitting mucus, which was occasionally tinged with blood. One of his inmates said Pownell "couldn't move" and "looked like a frail old man." Flores noted that his hands were cold and clammy. The nurse told Pownell, "'You're not getting a free ride to the hospital today' and something to the like of 'Since you're just going to continue to f--- around, we (the nurses) are just going to leave (you here),'" according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit accuses "several" jail employees of slandering Pownell by calling him a faker and other profane names. The hostility was an "unconstitutional and widespread practice," the lawsuit said. Pownell told one of his cell mates that he thought he was dying, the lawsuit said. About 7:30 p.m. on April 8, Pownell began to convulse. Four minutes later, nurse Frazier and two jail officers responded to the cell mate's pleading for help. "Troy was cold to the touch and had no pulse by this time," the lawsuit said. Medics took Pownell to a hospital, where a physician noted he had suffered cardiac arrest, acute respiratory failure and required endotracheal intubation. The coroner said the cause of death was sepsis due to a perforated duodenal ulcer, with cirrhosis of the liver contributing. The lawsuit asks for damages for wrongful death, including funeral, burial and attorney costs. The Tippecanoe County Jail and Quality Correctional Care — and their employees — are named in another active case in the federal court system involving an inmate's death, this one involving the suicide of an inmate in December 2021. In that case, filed in May 2023, the plaintiff alleges that 25-year-old Calvin Miller had reported depression and mental health issues to correctional officers and medical providers in the months he had spent there. The lawsuit says he had written messages on his cell walls, such as "depressed," that were ignored. Miller, who was jailed in September 2021 on a warrant, had a Tippecanoe County history of meth possession and auto theft. The defendants have generally denied the allegations and filed a motion to dismiss in November that has not yet been decided. This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lawsuit: Tippecanoe County jail, medical officials ignored dying inmate
Time of India
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
'Will be next job': Trump proposes deporting US citizens with criminal offenses; says will find out legality
US President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable at "Alligator Alcatraz" (Image credits: AP) US President Donald Trump on Tuesday floated the idea of deporting US citizens who commit crimes, a proposal that legal experts say could violate the Constitution. During a visit to a migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, Trump claimed that some immigrants who are now US citizens have committed serious offenses. "They're not new to our country. They're old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth," Trump told reporters,according to ABC News. "So maybe that will be the next job." Trump admitted he was unsure of the legal basis for his proposal. "We'll have to find that out legally. I'm just saying if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat," he added. "I don't know if we do or not, we're looking at that right now." The comments come just weeks after assistant attorney general Brett Shumate, a Trump appointee, issued a memo encouraging US attorneys to pursue denaturalisation cases that align with the administration's policy goals. The memo listed individuals involved in crimes such as torture, war crimes, human trafficking and human rights violations as key targets. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trending in in 2025: Local network access control [Click Here] Esseps Learn More Undo Legal experts have pushed back, warning that deporting natural-born or naturalised citizens based solely on criminal activity could breach constitutional protections, particularly the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment, reported ABC News. Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia, told ABC News that naturalised citizens can only be stripped of their status in specific cases, such as if they committed fraud during the naturalization process or engaged in acts like treason. 'An unrelated crime could not be the basis for denaturalising and deporting somebody," said Frost. Trump visited the 'Alligator Alcatraz' migrant detention center in Florida. While critics have described the facility as 'inhumane' due to the administration's tough immigration policies, the president leaned into the controversy during the center's official opening.
