Abortion vote ‘not like marriage poll’
As experts open debate on Eighth Amendment, campaigner issues warning
THE Citizens’ Assembly yesterday heard the first formal debate about the Eighth Amendment – while gay rights campaigner Panti Bliss has urged Repeal the Eighth campaigners to be tolerant, warning that the upcoming abortion referendum ‘will not be Gay Marriage Part II’.
The Citizens’ Assembly, chaired by Supreme Court Justice Mary Laffoy and comprising 99 citizens, heard the debate yesterday, which addressed the issue of fatal foetal abnormalities – including terminology and testing – and heard that 40 Irish women terminated pregnancies after being told their baby would have Down syndrome.
Countries such as Iceland with more liberal abortion laws and accurate testing have not seen a baby born with Down syndrome in several years. Professor Peter McParland, the director of foetal maternal medicine at the National Maternity Hospital, said: ‘We are not Iceland and we’re not Denmark but there is a trend there. Down syndrome is not lethal or fatal, but women are choosing to have the test. They want the reassurance that their baby is okay. If their baby is not okay , they have this dilemma. ‘The science has got way ahead of the ethical discussion. As a society we have not reflected on what the implications are.’ The legal implications of not changing the Eighth was also dealt with, with Dr Noelle Higgins, a senior lecturer in law at Maynooth University, saying: ‘There is a huge amount of international pressure on Ireland to review its laws, but Ireland will be always be defending its laws at this committee.’
Dr Helen Watt of the Catholic institution, the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Oxford, said abortions carried out even when a foetus has a life-limiting condition can be a ‘shattering experience’. Research suggested that the women who carry their babies to term in such circumstances do better with perinatal hospice support than those who opt for abortion.
Senior counsel Eileen Barrington said that when Ireland’s abortion law came before the European Court of Human Rights, the State argued that the people had voted on the issue on a number of occasions at referendums. If the people voted against an amendment of Article 40.3.3, the State would have to go back to defend the will of the people again, she said.
Justice Mary Laffoy also ruled on the terminology regarding problematic pregnancies. Antiabortion campaigners had lobbied for the phrase ‘life-limiting conditions’ in place of ‘fatal foetal abnormalities’. But to exclude its usage at the assembly would be ‘inappropriate’, she argued.
Rory O’Neill, a Repeal activist, said before yesterday’s meeting that campaigners should steer clear of accusations of ‘metropolitan elitism’ that can alienate people.
‘When it comes to abortion, it’s sometimes forgotten that you can give someone all the salient facts you want, but you won’t change a mind that believes abortion is murder,’ he said. ‘They are not misogynists or monsters for [believing] that.’
He urged activists to communicate with those people in the middle, whose minds are open to change. And he warned those who voted Yes in the Marriage Equality referendum of 2015 not to assume the favour would be returned by the LGBT community. ‘People who were passionately Yes voters in the marriage referendum aren’t automatically pro-choice,’ he said.
‘The marriage referendum was separated out from religious concerns and it was about family members and neighbours.’
Yesterday’s meeting of the Assembly was the second of four, during which the members will advise legislators on the future of the Eighth Amendment.
40 Irish women aborted foetuses with Down’s ‘Marriage poll was about family and neighbours’