A Step in the Right Direction

Abortion in Ireland is a contentious topic, and after the publication of the proposed Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill on midnight on June 12, the debate has continued to rage.

Pro-choice groups argue that the legislation does not go far enough, particularly as it does not include provisions for victims of rape or incest, fatal foetal abnormalities or those instances when continuing a pregnancy poses a grave risk to a woman’s health.
Anti-choice groups, for their part, complain that the legislation will lead to “abortion on demand”. As a result, TDs who support the bill have been harassed with hate mail and threats. “They’ve been threatened with having their home burned down and one has been threatened with having her throat cut,” says Independent TD for Waterford John Halligan.
As the issue has serious implications for women’s lives, their health and their right to bodily autonomy, a nuanced discussion on abortion that bypasses the heated rhetoric is essential. The Abortion Papers, a symposium held on June 8 (with publication of the papers to follow), aimed to give substance to that objective.
Speakers included Ailbhe Smyth, a pro-choice activist, researcher and member of Action on X; Orla O’Connor, director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland; and Sinéad Kennedy, a founder member of Action on X.
The first Abortion Papers – a collection of work by scholars and activists brought together by Ailbhe Smyth – was published in 1992 before the X Case referendum. The 2013 Abortion Papers symposium was inspired by this original model, explains Catherine Conlon, a Research Fellow at the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity.
“At the end of last year when the news broke about the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar, myself, Sinéad Kennedy and Aideen Quilty came together because we wanted to make some kind of constructive response.
“It is very difficult to distil the complexities of the situations women face down to media-friendly sound bites and slogans to fit on banners. We wanted Saturday to be a space for the careful, responsible and considered thinking and activism that supports women’s rights, including the right to choose motherhood,” says Conlon.
Given that it has been twenty-one years since the X Case, the slow pace of change must be frustrating for activists.
“It can be a bit dispiriting at times,” says Ailbhe Smyth.
However, Smyth notes that there has been significant progress particularly in relation to Irish people’s acceptance that legislation is necessary.
“There has been a huge shift in the population in general,” she observes. “If we just take the results of the Irish Times poll (June 13), it shows that at 75%, a very large majority of people in this country believe that abortion legislation is vital so that women’s lives are saved. Secondly, a large majority believe that it is vital to protect women’s health. Twenty-one years ago we were not at that point.
“The virulence of the opposition to abortion has not changed – it is still couched in terms which are very absolutist and dogmatic. And politicians are still very slow to act, but the people have gone much further and have incorporated the reality – that abortion is a fact of women’s lives – in their thinking. People understand that there are situations in which women need to have abortions.”
Anti-choice groups argue that the legislation will “open the floodgates”, but that is disproved by statistics elsewhere.
“The abortion rate in Holland is almost equivalent to the Irish abortion rate and the Dutch abortion laws are infinitely more liberal,” says Conlon. “There is always a tendency to look to Britain for comparison. When people talk about the floodgates opening, they talk about the abortion rates in the UK and the US. But actually if you legalised abortion and addressed a number of the cultural issues around sexuality, pregnancy and motherhood in ways that Holland, the Scandinavian countries and Canada have done, we’d have other comparators.”
“The floodgates opened as soon as the laws liberalised in Britain and Irish women could go over there for an abortion,” Smyth adds. “Ireland has been able to say we don’t have abortion here, but we’ve only been able to say that because we know we have abortion in the UK.”
While pro-choice activists are critical of the proposed legislation, given the limited circumstances under which abortion will be legal, and the inclusion of a jail term of up to fourteen years for anyone providing a termination outside the narrow confines of the bill, it is still seen largely as a positive development.
“It is a first step,” says Smyth. “We have said all along in Action On X that we are seeking repeal of the 8th Amendment of the Constitution, but we acknowledge that this is a first step. We are one rung further up a difficult ladder.”