Question
three
Edwin Poots, local Health Minister, has been under some
pressure recently. Mr Justice Tracy has ruled that the ban on gay men giving
blood is ‘irrational’. Poots has been challenged by gay men because he has
refused to lift the ban which has already been removed in England. He has also
been challenged by Sarah Ewart, a pregnant woman who has been told by her
doctors that she was carrying a malformed foetus. She had no option but to go
to England for an abortion which, by law, could not be carried out here. She
feels that in NI there is no account taken of the mother’s welfare. A second
woman, expecting twins, has come forward who is in a similar situation to
Sarah. Should our abortion laws in NI be revised? Can Edwin Poots steer a wise
path through these emotive issues?
Comment
What kind of a backwater do we live in? Do we really
allow some puffed up religious extremist dictate government strategies which
openly discriminate against one section of our population? Does he expect us to
all sit back and agree with these ‘irrational’ decisions based not on
intellectual investigation but merely individual prejudice? Donated blood is routinely screened. Where is
the problem? This whole fear is invented by Poots and his cronies out of religious
intolerance and ignorance. And what do we do in this country? We have largely
left it up to the oppressed themselves, the gay population, to fight their own
corner against this blatant attack on their human rights. No big well of
support here from a largely disinterested population ready to let this bully
boy trample over the rights of a section of our society who continue to battle
against discrimination, prejudice and oppression. In 2013!!! At least they seem
to have won this particular battle. Doubtless there will be many more to come.
But maybe Sarah Ewart will be in a better position to do
more damage. Who can have anything but sympathy for this young woman, who,
while coping with the most terrible grief, has had to face the impact of
another of Poots’ ill-conceived strategies? (Except of course the Rottweiler, Bernadette
Smyth). Poots, with his black and white religious fervour, has decreed that
Sarah cannot receive the care and treatment she needs in NI. The care and
treatment that medical teams would very much like to provide. Poots knows
better than anyone, of course. Better than Sarah herself, better than the
unfortunate young couple who have just received the same awful news as Sarah,
better than any medical team.
But will Poots be reined in? Will he bow to better judgement? He does seem
to be a much more subdued version of himself in recent days. Not before time. Our
politicians need to sit up and take note that they are here to serve everyone.
We do not pay them huge wages in order that they can implement their own highly
prejudiced policies. In my view Poots should have been required to resign. That
is what would have happened in any sane society. But then who would be there to
replace him? Yet another equally biased and not yet rather chastened Poots
lookalike. We will have to make do with Poots. He’s going to be treading lightly
for a while, isn’t he?
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