Abortion once again

It's hard to believe that it was Garret Fitzgerald who got us into this mess. Back in 1983, the then Taoiseach played politics with the abortion issue. It was out of keeping with the Fine Gael position on the majority of social policy at the time – but when Charlie Haughey, the then leader of Fianna Fail did a deal with the inaccurately-named Pro-Life Movement to introduce an

amendment to the Constitution which would attempt to ensure that abortion could never take place in Ireland, Garret Fitzgerald was faced with a dilemma.

Would he play a game of me-too? Or would he resist the pressure and the blackmail that was the order of the day from the fundamentalist lobby group

and insist that there was no need to insert an amendment – that the proper forum for dealing with abortion was Dail Eireann, where appropriate

legislation could and would be introduced, as and when it was necessary todeal with a changing consensus in relation to the issue? In the event, he didn't have the guts to resist. He saw the possibility of Fianna Fail

winning a heavy helping of political advantage, if Fine Gael didn't follow suit. And so he capitulated to the demands of the Anti-Happiness League. The Eighth Amendment of 1983 was the result.

When you consider that it was that great political rogue, Charlie Haughey – a man whose personal morality suggests that he was unlikely to have any

genuine qualms about someone having an abortion – who first gave the idea credibility, well, you'd have to laugh. Unfortunately the results in the interim have been far from funny. Indignity, pain and trauma have been heaped on people – most notably the fourteen-year-old girl at the centre of the X-case in 1992 – and yet we are still in a position where up to eight thousand Irish women take the boat or the plane each year, to have abortions in Britain.

The Anti-Happiness League have been at it again over the past few years, gaining the ear of the politicians and through the rather sad offices of three of the independent TDs who support the government in the Dail – Harry Blaney, Mildred Fox and Jackie Healy-Rea – they have exerted sufficient pressure to get Bertie Ahern to acquiesce again in another mad effort to 'fix' the position on abortion in the Constitution.

In the event, they have one major factor, which may tell hugely in their favour, and that is the presence at the Cabinet table of the PD Attorney General, Michael McDowell. McDowell is a smart cookie and a superb lawyer. He has a far greater potential, than any of those charged with the duty in the past, to come up with a mechanism that will actually have the effect

that is intended in the drafting.

What he has produced so far is ingenious – an Amendment that has attached to it the text of the legislation that the government intends to introduce. The effect of this is that it will not be possible to change that legislation in the future without a further referendum.

The legislation attempts to walk a middle-ground, allowing for abortion explicitly where the life of the mother is in danger, but also expressly excluding the threat of suicide as a basis for deciding that the life of the mother is at risk. It also provides for the use of the morning after pill, despite the fact that many anti-abortionists believe this to be anabortifacient.

There is no knowing how this will play out, given the extent to which the judges of the Supreme Court have in the past confounded the expectations of people on all sides of the debate. Already the Labour Party have claimed that the proposed measure is unconstitutional, and there is every possibility that it will be tested in the courts, before it is put to the people.

The ingenuity of what is proposed notwithstanding, I had hoped for more from the PDs in Government than that they would go along with the idea that it is appropriate to deal with the issue of abortion at all in the Constitution. I doubt that either Liz O'Donnell or Michael McDowell were ever comfortable with this peculiarly Irish solution to a universal problem. The fact is that the formula that they have produced will do absolutely nothing to alleviate the difficult position of those women who do decide that abortion is the best course of action in a crisis pregnancy. I would have thought that O'Donnell and also Mary Harney would have had a genuine desire to do something to help these women; instead, by allowing this referendum and legislation to proceed, they are effectively abandoning them.

It is a misuse of the Constitution to have introduced this issue into it in the first place. The only referendum that is desirable, therefore, is one which would remove any provision in relation to abortion from it. If that was

done, then the Dail could take responsibility for framing legislation which, on the one hand reflects the will of the people and on the other respects the rights of individuals to control their own fertility.

To ask Liz O'Donnell a question: is it right that a woman, or a girl of child-bearing age, who becomes pregnant as a result of rape or incest, should be forced to see that pregnancy through to completion? And if this is not right, is it right that a victim in these circumstances should have to travel abroad to secure a termination, if this is the course that she chooses? And if this is not right, then why are you supporting this Referendum?

Abortion is not something that women choose lightly. It is not something that anyone invites. It is a difficult and often lonely and traumatic choice. But it is also almost always the best choice for those women who make it. I believe that it is right that Irish women should have that option, and that they should not have to travel outside this country to exercise it.

I believe in a woman's right to choose. But there are shades that can be achieved in legislation, which might be appropriate to the time that we live in, if it is not locked to the kind of blanket ban that is intended by dealing with the issue in the Constitution in the first place. If the PDs – and indeed the Labour Party – had the courage of their convictions, I believe that this is what they would press for: a referendum to remove any reference to abortion from the Constitution, and then legislation in the Dail to set out the legal

framework in which abortion would be allowed here. Far from being a liability electorally, this stance might just win the party that adopts it fresh and enthusiastic respect and support.

Maybe it is not too late for the PDs. Without their ongoing approval, this latest affront to the huge number of Irish women who have had abortions will not be able to proceed. They should take their courage in their hands and – really – do the right thing.