An independent general election candidate in Donegal in 2016 has started a hunger strike outside the Dáil in Dublin demanding that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Oireachtas Committee on Abortion watch a video of an abortion at their meeting before discussing a referendum any further.

Tim Jackson, from Ballybofey, wrote to Leo Varadkar and Senator Catherine Noone, chairwoman of the committee, last week requesting the group watch footage of the controversial procedure, but did not receive a response.

Jackson, who was 26 when we ran in the last General Election, said: "Our leaders apparently don't want to face the ugly truth of how the child is killed, despite pushing for a repeal of the 8th Amendment. How many of them even care that the remains of the child are incinerated, as if they never existed? There is no outcry over a human being that's killed or denied a grave in this instance; there's actually political support for it. We also have a Minister for Children who has brought her office into disrepute by calling for a repeal which would strip children in the womb of their natural right to life. Choosing which human beings can live and die is unacceptable, and they won't get away with this."

Jackson will drink water and says the hunger strike will not be to the point of death. He began this morning carrying a white flag which, he says, "calls for an end to the war on unwanted, unborn babies, 50 million of whom are killed every year."

Jackson polled 3,580 first preference votes in the five-seat Donegal constituency at the last general election and wasn't eliminated until the tenth count.

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