A Derry doctor has come under fire for comments made about women in a debate this week.
Independent Foyle candidate Dr. Anne McCloskey suggested women now see themselves as “receptacles for semen” in a debate which included several other local candidates.
According to Derry Now, the candidates were asked their opinion on abortion during the debate.
Dr. McCloskey answered:
“Women and young people are taking control of their sexuality in a way that they never did before. It is to be encouraged and welcomed.
“Women should have control over their fertility, absolutely, contraception services should be freely available. I think that is one of the things that we need to work towards as a society and I think we are getting there.
“Young women now have a range of contraceptive services and young men as well.
“Girls in this town….I think women’s liberation has got us to a very bad place for a lot of young women who regard themselves as receptacles for semen and if they don’t want it they can get rid of it.
“That to me is not what human sexuality is about.”
Sinn Fein MLA Maeve McLaughlin, who also took part in the debate, later criticised the comments, referring to them as “deplorable”.
She said:
“The comments made by Dr. McCloskey at a hustings event in the city last night are deplorable and a gross insult to all women.
“Is she seriously arguing that women should return to a subservient position in our society?
“It’s an ironic position for someone who, as a successful doctor, has broken through the gender barriers which still exist in many aspects of life.”
However, speaking to the paper, Dr. McCloskey has defended her comments and said that they were taken out of context.
She said:
“What I meant was that women’s liberation has brought us so far. Women are not at times in charge of their sexual health often resulting in crisis pregnancies of which they are not in control.
“I attribute this to a lack of sex education and the availability of services. I feel that women were left behind by the sexual revolution. They are disempowered and some feel that they have to make themselves sexually available in order to be accepted. I speak to women about this in surgery constantly.”
