ALLEGATIONS that two abortions have been carried out in Ireland are part of a conspiracy to introduce abortion to the State, according to the US based antiabortion campaigner Father Richard Welch.
Father Welch was in Killiney, Co Dublin, at a conference of the US based anti abortion organisation Human Life International. He is its ecclesiastical affairs director.
"I could have written the script for this," he told The Irish Times when asked about the allegations. "All of a sudden illegal abortions start to appear. The strategy is to show that illegal abortions are dangerous and then try to have them made legal.
"Another reason for doing this is, if the public keep hearing about it they get desensitised. Then they start listening to the arguments of the pro abortionists. It's an old trick. That's HLI's international experience. You can be sure this is being orchestrated, and not just on the shores of Ireland.
"We believe there is a conspiracy in Ireland from the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Here it is the IFPA. There are hundreds of millions of dollars from this and other organisations who are exporting their plans for controlling population. We call it contraceptive imperialism, which is racist and anti family."
Ms Catherine Forde, IFPA chairwoman, said the suggestion that the IFPA or IPPF had anything to do with allegations of abortions having been carried out in Ireland was "absolute and utter nonsense". She said the aims of the IPPF were to reduce maternal death and to ensure access by everyone to family planning, which was a right recognised by many international conventions and conferences.
Asked if HLI, which has a branch in Ireland, would favour a referendum on abortion, Father Welch said it would if the wording allowed no compromise on the issue.
"There is never any medical or other reason for abortion," he said. "This is one of the ploys to introduce abortion on demand. We are opposed to it on any condition - not incest, not rape, nothing."
Ectopic pregnancy, for example, was an extremely rare condition. "About one in 10,000. And there are ways of planting the child in the womb. God, they're cloning sheep, they can certainly resolve this problem."
In the treatment of cancer of the uterus of a pregnant woman, which results in the foetus dying, he said that the act involved was the treatment of the cancer, not the killing of the baby.
Asked about the reaction to his HLI colleague, Father Paul Marx, when on previous visits he illustrated his anti abortion talks in schools with a foetus in a bottle, he said: "Our motto is, `Face Facts Fearlessly'. When it comes to abortion we have done that. We feel we can't perpetuate the conspiracy of silence. We feel we should show what abortion is graphically.
"It is upsetting. If it is so upsetting why should we allow it? In the US and Central America we have shown graphic images of abortion to children as young as 12 with great effect.
"In some cultures it is more of a shock than in others. Perhaps we need that kind of shock instead of waking up in 10 years and finding abortion legal."
Father Welch said he was the first priest arrested for blocking an abortion clinic in the US. He told The Irish Times he was thrown out of England. He said HLI, for which he now works full time, did not blockade clinics, but he personally defended that activity.
Asked for his reaction to the less than enthusiastic response to his conference from the Pro Life Campaign, he said: "Our policy is to work hand in hand with all pro life groups".