Leaders need to step up as abortion row gets ugly
AFTER Savita Halappanavar tragically died, her grieving husband Praveen asked that her name not become embroiled in our bitter abortion debate. ‘He doesn’t want Savita’s name or memory tarnished in this manner,’ said Praveen’s lawyer. ‘He doesn’t want to be embroiled in a dispute that is going around this issue.’
Four years later, after the settling of a medical negligence case and a thorough investigation into the awful circumstances of her death, Savita’s name is back in the spotlight.
Just as Praveen feared, she is being exploited by warring abortion factions, reduced to an instrument of cheap point-scoring and one-upmanship in our never-ending row about the rights and wrongs of abortion provision.
Ronán Mullan shamefully used Savita on RTÉ Radio to hammer home his ethical view. Let’s hope Praveen wasn’t listening to his callous dismissal of the young woman and the disgraceful inference that her lost baby was unwanted.
Kate O’Connell sensationally declared at the Oireachtas committee that ‘we are all abortionists in this room’ waded in on the counter-attack.
For the duration of their verbal bust-up, it was as if we were back in the early 1980s, amid the hatefilled vitriol and hysteria that preceded the 1983 referendum. A few days earlier the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis passed a motion calling for the Eighth Amendment to be retained, placing itself on a collision course regarding abortion with the young and urban voters it so desperately needs.
It’s not hard to understand why political leaders run for cover when abortion is aired. With the possible exception of Labour and the far left groups, parties depend on their diehard supporters who often have unyielding principles.
The future however is in the hands of younger voters, with increasingly a more liberal and, indeed, secular outlook.
But for how much longer can leaders keep their lofty distance and let lesser mortals loose on the spade work?
The Citizens’ Assembly was a clear attempt at consensus building around the emotive issue. The earlier Oireachtas hearings chaired by Jerry Buttimer were another try at replacing scaremongering and rancour with reason and compassion.
We now have yet another round of Oireachtas hearings, but the atmosphere of calm deliberation has been destroyed by angry claims that it’s a set-up. It’s as if in a leadership vacuum, all attempts at taking the explosive heat of intolerance and recrimination out of the debate are doomed to fail; that it’s only ever a matter of time before the fine line we are treading between mutual respect and loathing, ruptures and we are metaphorically and literally back at each other’s throats.
It’s not as if our political leaders are without a roadmap for bringing a polarising debate to a successful conclusion. The gay marriage referendum saw politicians come together to persuade mainstream opinion to vote in favour. Traditionalists such as Enda Kenny and prominent politicians like Simon Coveney echoed Catholic belief on the sanctity of marriage, while admitting that they had a change of heart about extending the benefits of matrimony to everybody. The evil sting of homophobia was taken out of the debate as well-known figures urged us to show compassion and to live-and-let-live. We need our leaders to do the same again.