Courts should not decide complex abortion cases
The ability to terminate a pregnancy must be made available in line with best medical practice, writes Caoimhe Haughey
IN 1983, I walked out of Mass announcing to my parents that I was not willing to listen to our parish priest lecturing me about abortion. My outburst didn’t go down too well. I was so angry the Church believed it had the right to determine such a personal, sensitive issue for women and use the pulpit to frighten us. For me this wasn’t about the teachings of the Catholic Church, it was about choice, my choice, “her choice”. I was 13, attending the Dominicans in Sutton, indoctrinated to believe an unwanted pregnancy “would ruin my life”, and I had vague notions about becoming a lawyer some day.
I grew up in that era of divisive bitter debate, multiple confusing, inconsistent and fragmented referendums, the tragic Ann Lovett case, the shocking X case and limited access to the contraceptive pill. My belief in my right of choice and bodily integrity became even more entrenched. I have always been pro choice and I have never been persuaded otherwise.
Thirty-five years later, a lot older and somewhat wiser, I understand now why my reaction back then was so heart, head and gut instinctive.
I am privileged to have had a good education (thanks Mam and Dad!) — University College Dublin and then qualifying as a solicitor in 1994. I am a litigator and I only act for injured parties. I am drawn to the underdog. In latter years, my medical negligence client base has increased.
Maybe it’s because I care passionately about people, particularly women who have suffered. Often that suffering is attributable to the legal liability of the Health Service Executive, a hospital, a doctor or the State. David versus Goliath.
On my journey through my work life, with its many twists and turns, I have met the most wonderful, courageous, dignified but brokenhearted women seeking help because our health system, and our State, has failed them. And I say help in the first instance, not legal advice.
Ask yourself what do you say to a mother who tells you her very much-wanted baby’s fatal foetal abnormality was diagnosed too late in her pregnancy, due to a negligent clerical error, leaving her with no time to consider, plan and put in place her choice of options?
She wants answers to help her cope with her grief. She doesn’t want another woman to go through her trauma, the sheer abandonment. You try and explain the nuances of our State’s abortion laws. She looks at you blankly. I sat with this woman, I held her hand and I cried with her in the privacy of my office.
Think about the vulnerable teenager, who has been brutal- ly raped multiple times. Her physical scars are permanent, her mental scars are palpable. She is alone. Then she has to face the utter devastation of finding herself pregnant and she tells you she will commit suicide if the pregnancy is not ended? You know she means it. How do you help her when the doctors, hospitals and designated agencies she has turned to have closed their doors on her? How do you explain to her that in this country a termination of pregnancy means delivering an unwanted baby by caesarean section? That’s what the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act has given us. If you don’t believe me, read the guidelines.
What about the woman who makes the very personal invasive decision to have a tubal ligation.
Maybe this woman never wants to have children, or maybe this woman has been told another pregnancy might kill her. And then she finds out she is pregnant because the procedure has failed, sometimes due to medical negligence, sometimes because that’s just what happens. The doctors shrug and shake their heads. She is shocked, her life is turned upside down. What does she do? She has no recourse other than to travel and consider legal redress to “right the wrong”. That cannot be right. I have met such women, I have fought their legal battles and now they quietly try and get on with their lives.
I am humbled and proud to have helped these women providing legal advice, assistance and achieving some sense of justice. This work has made me a kinder person and a better lawyer.
Stories of women’s pregnancies litter the courts.
I must mention the inexplicably tragic PP case, heard in the High Court over Christmas 2014, in which doctors decided they could not withdraw life support for a clinically dead young mother, to protect her unborn child.
I cannot even begin to imagine the horror of what that young woman went through, what her family had to bear witness to and, in fairness, the decisions the doctors, lawyers and judges involved had to make. It was unspeakably inhumane.
Let’s not forget the A, B and C cases, the much-forgotten D case, Amanda Mellet, Siobhan Whelan and now the Y case. How many more letters of the alphabet will the courts have to assign before our legislature gives us our vote? These tragic cases should not be left to our courts to “sort out”. Hard cases make bad law.
If anything here resonates, please reflect upon what it is like “on the ground”, “at the coal face” for these women — our women, our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our friends.
The Citizens’ Assembly, under the wise guidance of Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, had the benefit of a vast wealth of personal stories and, of course, legal and medical expertise. The personal stories are the ones that count.
The recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly, that abortion should be permitted in the State in a wide range of circumstances, are no coincidence. Caoimhe Haughey is the founder and principal of CM Haughey Solicitors