Fine Gael Senator Fidelma Healy Eames has revealed that she has been receiving threatening correspondence on the abortion issue from some who claim to be pro-choice.
The Galway Senator was responding to media reports today about alleged inappropriate correspondence received by An Taoiseach and other parliamentary colleagues.
"I too have received some vile and threatening messages myself from people, allegedly on the pro-choice side of the debate," she said. " I’ve been receiving such material for some time- vile voicemails and texts. I understand the desire to alert the public to this kind of correspondence but I think on balance it may be better to alert the Gardaí," she opined.
Senator Healy Eames pointed out that politicians get a lot of unpleasant stuff - but she insists they must not let any of this distract from the vital questions at hand.
"The reason I am commenting publicly is because there is a false impression that this is only happening on one side of the debate," she added. "This is not true.
We need to be fair to everybody involved, including the great majority of people, of whatever viewpoint, who lobby politicians in an appropriate manner.
It would be unfair to use the actions of extreme elements, whose precise agenda or state of mind we don’t know, to demonise one side or the other of the debate."
