He’s at it again.

Here is Simon Harris in today’s Sunday Times saying that NO campaigners are lying.

Minister Harris tells a couple of massive porkies in this piece, so let’s go through them one by one. And let’s start with the first one– where the Minister claims that Bishop Smith is wrong when he says the bill does not limit abortions up to birth.

Wrong, Minister. Here’s head 6 of your own bill:

That is the head of the abortion bill in full. It very clearly legalises abortion right up to birth when two doctors agree that it is “likely” that a baby may not survive very long.

But wait!

Simon Harris also says that this will not happen, because in such circumstances, the baby will be delivered early.

Here he is in the article, making that claim:

The problem with this is very simple – the legislation says no such thing. Have a look for yourself, here it is:

http://health.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/General-Scheme-for-Publication.pdf

You won’t find the words “early delivery” in there anywhere. You will only find “termination of pregnancy”.

Aha!, abortion campaigners say. There you go, you pro-lifers, lying again. Sure isn’t termination of pregnancy just ending the pregnancy – doesn’t that cover “early delivery”?

Sadly, it does not. Here is the definition of “termination of pregnancy” in the legislation:

That’s pretty clear – anywhere the bill refers to “Termination of Pregnancy” it refers to “ending the life of the foetus”.

But there’s more:

In head 5, Termination of Pregnancy is legalised at any point in the pregnancy, by any doctor, in the event of “emergency risk to mental health”.

Here is head 5 of the heads of bill, published by Simon Harris. This part of the bill allows abortion up to birth where there is an “emergency risk to the health of the mother”:

Head 5’s “emergency risk” is not defined, but it covers mental health emergencies, and it requires only one doctor to declare that a woman is in a mental health emergency and needs an abortion. In this case, abortion is permitted up to birth, and on the say so of one doctor.

So, it’s clear that in head 5, as you can read above, Termination of Pregnancy is legalised at any point in the pregnancy, by any doctor, in the event of “emergency risk to mental health”.

Why is the Minister lying about all of this? And why won’t he debate his bill?

Now, you will not read extracts from the bill on the Together for Yes website. You certainly won’t read them in the media.

Save the 8th is happy to talk about the bill, because what’s in it is horrifying. And we are, once more, calling on Simon Harris to debate in a public forum what is in the bill.

In the meantime, please read it, inform yourself, and vote NO.