Republican News · Thursday 7 February 2002

Abortion referendum is flawed

The March referendum we have been presented with can only serve to reinforce the opinion that this route is the wrong way to deal with the complex and difficult issue of abortion.

In December, Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin voted against the 25th Amendment to the Constitution (Protection of Human Life in Pregnancy) Bill. He did so because the proposed constitutional amendment and legislation is incompatible with Sinn Féin policy, which accepts the need for abortion where a woman's mental and physical well-being or life is at risk or in grave danger, and in cases of rape or sexual abuse.

The government's proposal seeks to overturn the Supreme Court judgement in the X case and to rule out the risk of suicide as grounds for the legal termination of a pregnancy. The law would accept the "reasonable opinion" of medical practitioners that to prevent a real and sustainable risk of loss of a woman's life, a procedure may be carried out which results in the ending of unborn human life but not where such "reasonable opinion" concludes that the woman's life is at risk by means of suicide.

This is a deeply flawed proposal which could make the situation worse on the basis that the government do not have detailed alternative legislative proposals themselves.

The real focus should not be on fighting yet another divisive and ultimately pointless referendum. The real focus must be on crisis pregnancies.

All possible means of education and support services should be put in place to prevent crisis pregnancies, but Irish society also has a responsibility to not only address the issue of abortion but also to address the fact that thousands of Irish women travel to Britain each year for abortions. That issue cannot be tackled by criminalising women, nor by burying our heads in the sand, but by comprehensively addressing the reasons why women choose the option of abortion.

The way to tackle the abortion issue is by comprehensive sex education, full access to childcare and comprehensive support services, including financial support, for single parents. Full information and nondirective pregnancy counselling embodying all choices should be freely available.

The attitudes and forces in society which compel women to have abortions and criminalise those who make this decision must be opposed.