“It’s either you eat this or I beat that kid out of you.”
Man pleads guilty to forcing woman to take abortion pills.
(Pro Life Campaign) A man who forced his partner to take abortion pills before locking her in a room is to be sentenced (this) week.
The man, who is in his 20s, appeared earlier (last) week at Letterkenny Circuit Court, where he pleaded guilty to unlawfully ending the life of the unborn child and to procuring abortion pills with the intent of bringing about that outcome. The woman who was coerced into having the abortion delivered an extraordinarily powerful victim impact statement in court on Tuesday, which appears at the end of this report, and we strongly encourage you to take the time to read it.
This latest case comes just a fortnight after a man was sentenced to eight years in prison at Mullingar Circuit Criminal Court following a vicious and prolonged campaign of violence and coercive control against his former partner, which included forcing her to undergo an abortion after threatening to “kick the child out of you”.
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In response to the alarming rise in coercive abortion in Ireland, Aontú Senator Sarah O’Reilly has called on the Government to initiate an urgent independent review examining the prevalence of coercive abortion, with a specific focus on the risks associated with telemedicine abortion.
The Government’s decision to sanction telemedicine “at-home” abortions during the Covid-19 period – a measure that was subsequently made permanent – greatly increases the risk of coercion abortion and potentially endangers women’s health, given the absence of an in-person consultation with a doctor before the abortion pills are administered. The question arises as to under what pretence the man due to be sentenced in the Donegal case obtained the abortion pills from a pharmacy and what safeguards are needed to prevent it happening again..
The court in Letterkenny was told that the man procured the abortions pills from a pharmacy in Dublin. In an audio recording played in court of him coercing his partner to take the pills, he can be heard saying: “I’m showing you what to do… take this… I’m dead serious… I’m forcing you. I don’t care, take it. It’s either you eat this or I beat that kid out of you tonight. I’m dead serious…I’m forcing you. I don’t care. Take it.”
In her harrowing victim impact statement, delivered just a few feet from the accused, the woman said: “When he wrongfully imprisoned me and caused the termination of my nine-week pregnancy, he took far more than my freedom. He took my child. He took my sense of safety. He took a future that I had already begun to plan and love. My baby was real to me. I had hopes, dreams, and a bond with the life that was growing inside me, and all of it was violently stolen from me in a moment of cruelty that I will never forget.”
She said that after the whole ordeal “for a time, I lost myself. It changed how I saw the world, how I trusted, and how I understood love. But I want the court to know that I did not remain in that darkness. Through healing and faith, I opened my heart again. I found love not only in my amazing husband, who treats me with the love, dignity and kindness I always deserved, but in Christ, who carried me when I could not carry myself. My faith gave me strength when I was broken, and it gave me peace when I thought I would never feel whole again.
“I would also like to say something that stems from that faith. I have forgiven the defendant. The forgiveness does not mean what he did was acceptable. It means I refuse to let what he did continue to control my heart and my life.I will always grieve my child. I will always remember what was taken from me. Healing does not erase the loss, it only means I learned how to live with it. I am here today to ensure justice is served and to honour my baby, my truth, and the strength it took to survive this. What happened mattered. My child mattered. And justice matters.”
What an incredibly moving victim impact statement to read.
Every day in Ireland, women are coerced into abortions they do not want. Every day, the system behaves as though nothing is amiss. Let’s speak plainly: this continues because those in power refuse to allow meaningful scrutiny of the current abortion regime or to accept that greater accountability is required. Control over policy and decision-making in this area cannot remain solely in the hands of pro-abortion campaigners. Space must be made for other perspectives so that issues such as the growing prevalence of coercive abortion can be examined honestly, and concrete measures introduced to bring about the cultural and societal change needed to end this form of gender-based violence against women and their unborn children.
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Editor's note: This article was published by Pro Life Campaign and is reprinted with permission.
