Abortion – The 'C' Case

The 'C' Case

Niamh Uí Bhriain was very quickly cut off when she tried to relate this story on the 'Tonight With Vincent Browne' programme in July 2012.

Here are the facts.

In 1997 Miss 'C' was a young Irish girl, [legally a minor,] who became pregnant following a brutal rape. She had been taken into care to protect her from the rapist, but social workers then insisted that she was suicidal as a result of the pregnancy and wanted an abortion. When the parents opposed the abortion they became the subject of a vicious media campaign. Miss 'C's baby was aborted in a clinic in Britain.

It was a hugely contentious and tragic case which dominated the headlines for days. In the years that followed, abortion campaigners repeatedly used Miss 'C's case to demand the legalisation of abortion in Ireland.

But then, twelve years later, Miss 'C' spoke out. She said that she had never requested an abortion, and that she had wanted her baby to be given up for adoption. Here's what she said in an interview with Pat Kenny: "The nightmare still continues, with me going to England to have the abortion. I remember flying over on the plane with social workers to have the abortion..."

"I didn't understand what was happening ... I thought I was getting the baby out".

Pat Kenny: "You thought there would be a living baby there?"

Miss 'C': "Afterwards. Yeah. Then I remember waking up from the abortion and screaming and screaming and crying with the pain so they gave me another injection to fall back to sleep, well I don't know, I fell back to sleep afterwards. I woke up then and I was in no pain so I asked for the baby and they told me there was no baby..."

"I wouldn't have wanted to keep it; I would have put it up for adoption or something. No I wouldn't have wanted to keep the baby but I would have liked for it to be put up for adoption..."

"I still, still to this day I'm still suffering. I went to get a death certificate done for the baby. I named her Shannon. So, like, that was pretty hard for me to do as well. I went away for a week and I did that. That was pretty hard for me to do as well. But I had to have some dignity: to say that that child was still there...

I've tried to kill myself. I don't know how many times I've tried to kill myself. But I have a little five-year-old son now so he's keeping me, he is the best thing that has ever happened to me now..."

Once Miss 'C' had spoken out, she was never mentioned again by abortion campaigners. She didn't suit their agenda any more. That's to be expected; this is an industry that uses the vulnerability and suffering of women to further their own cause on a regular basis.

But the cover-up has been appalling. There has been no inquiry into the behaviour of the social workers and others involved. No-one has been brought to task for arranging an abortion for a minor without her knowledge or consent. There have been no apologies to Miss 'C' – or to her family – for the trauma and suffering endured. And, as we saw on the Vincent Browne programme, there is a rush to censor when the story of Miss 'C' is being told.

But despite the best efforts of abortion campaigners, truth has a way of coming out eventually. The shocking truth of what was done to Miss 'C' and her family in the name of 'choice' is now being told.