The Banquo’s Ghost of Irish Politics May 2, 2007
Posted by smiffy in Bioethics, Health, Ireland, Irish Election 2007, Irish Politics, Judiciary, Medical Issues, Social Policy.trackback
Well, as the long-awaited puppet contest finally gets started, something rather bizarre has happened. Politics, real politics, the kind of politics that seriously impacts on people’s lives has made a reappearance, in the form of abortion: the spectre which has been haunting Irish political life for the last quarter of a century. While the parties tie themselves in knots over stamp duty, the cost of home improvements in 1994 and early morning trips to the Phoenix Park, and unsuccesfully attempt to demonstrate any significant difference between their view and the views of their opponents, it’s almost comical watching them run for cover to avoid dealing with the one issue of substance that’s arisen all week.
We have a seventeen-year old woman who’s faced with the appalling prospect of carrying, against her will, an anencephalic pregnancy for five more months, in the full knowledge that she will give birth to a child without a brain which will live for a couple of days at most, if it lives at all.
We have Health Services Executive which not only refuses her permission to travel to the UK for a termination (for reasons which still remain unclear) but which also goes to the Gardaí in order to ensure that she doesn’t travel without their knowledge; this is the same HSE, remember, which we’re now told has previously funded women in the same situation to travel for termination in the past.
We have an Attorney General’s Office which states that the HSE and Gardaí have no power to prevent her from travelling, but which also appoints a counsel for the ‘unborn’ (despite the fact that, in presenting a defence to a recent case taken against the state in the European Court of Human Rights, it argued that a foetus with a serious abnormality incompatible with life might not constitute an ‘unborn’ at all).
And, perhaps most stomach-churning of all, we have a political class which, with a few honorable exceptions, refuses to take the responsibility of government and of the role of legislators seriously and address a tragedy with afflict thousands of women each year in this country.
The issue of abortion has dogged Irish politics for 25 years, ever since Haughey and Fitzgerald capitulated to a bunch of fanatical religious extremists and unwittingly enshrined a right to abortion in the Constitution. Since then, and particularly since the ‘X’ case in 1992, all political parties have adopted an ostrich-like approach to the problem: sticking their heads in the ground and waving their arses in the face of those Irish women faced with crisis pregnancy.
In the 15 years since ‘X’ there has been little or no serious attempt to get to grips with this hidden national crisis, and to regularise the confused and ambiguous legal situation. While the Supreme Court established the right to an abortion in cases where a woman’s life was at risk, this has never been legislated for, thus the judgement and the right are effectively ignored by Irish lawmakers. After the ‘C’ case, involving another minor in the care of the State, there was no attempt to draw up a code of conduct or best practice in dealing with such situations, and no attempt to preemptively address what the legal position should be in respect of the current ‘D’, where the risk to the life of the mother isn’t apparent (it’s not like such a situation couldn’t have been predicted). We’ve had a refusal even to define in law what the ‘unborn’ actually is, meaning that, at present, the state recognises the right to life of an adjective, impacting not just on abrotion but also on the recent dispute over the ownership/right to life to frozen embryos. And finally, after the other ‘D’ case in the ECHR, the coincidence of letters mirroring the coincidence in circumstances of the women involved, there was no thought given to the possibility that perhaps it was going to arise again, and that maybe, just maybe, it might be worth addressing the legal position before it turned into a another crisis.
Why don’t our TDs take their role as legislators seriously and tackle this complex issue? We hear the usual lines trotted out about how personal the issue is (which is why we have a Whip system in the Dáil) and how it’s not possible to gain consensus on it (as if a government which included Michael McDowell ever worried about getting cross-party support on anything else). My recent favourite is Mary Harney’s comment yesterday:
“We had a referendum a number of years ago in relation to abortion, where we put forward a very balanced approach, and that was rejected by the people,” Ms Harney said. “Therefore I am not certain that people are ready to determine in relation to these issues again.”
Remind anyone of Brecht’s poem about the East German Workers’ Strike of 1953?
The truth is that they’re scared and stupid. They buy the received wisdom which is repeated over and over that the Irish people oppose abortion (although this is contradicted by the most comprehensive research on the subject, the Crisis Pregnancy Agency’s Irish Contraception and Crisis Pregnancy Study: A Survey of the General Population, which shows a pro-choice majority and only a small minority ruling abortion out in all circumstances); that the Irish people don’t want another referendum on it (which assumes that all previous referenda were responses to the pleas of the electorate and that people prefer regular Court challenges to the abortion laws to dealing with this issue once and for all); and that the idiotic phrase ‘abortion on demand’ actually means something. They also realise, quite cynically, that there are no votes to be won on abortion, and would prefer to avoid the attentions of the screamers. Even though there are several pro-choice politicians in the Dáil, I know of none who would describe themselves as such in public (possibly Joe Higgins), while the so-called ‘pro-lifers’ smugly parade their piety. On no other issue are Yeats’ words more true: ‘The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity’.
The case is due to be heard in the High Court tomorrow, and one can only hope that Miss ‘D’ is granted permission to travel. Regardless of the outcome, however, one thing is sure: the next government, of whichever combination of parties, will not take a serious stance of abortion, or do anything of substance to eliminate the trauma of having to travel abroad faced by the thousands of Irish women dealing with crisis pregnancy every year. Unfortunately for the women, and luckily for the parties, this really is an issue that will go away if you ignore it. The government will follow the familiar path of keeping their heads down on the subject (in the sure knowledge that the opposition will do likewise), weather the storm if and when another teenager has to go to court to vindicate her rights, and once the particular case stops being talked about on Joe Duffy, it’s back to business as usual.It’s entirely apt that this case should have come to attention on the first day of the electoral campaign. It reminds us that without politicians of principle, who will show leadership and will make the right choices, regardless of how superficially popular or unpopular they might be, the entire process is a pointless farce. The kind of pusillanimity shown by countless Irish politicians on the issue of abortion – leaving the hard decisions to be decided by the courts on a case by case basis, rather than debated in the Dáil chamber, represents a complete abnegation of the duties of the elected legislator. But as long as we keep voting for them, I suppose we deserve nothing better.
Edit: Thanks to jjcarroll over on Semper Idem who has highlighted an important flaw in the post above. The CPA study cited only queried people in the 18 to 45 age group, rather than the electorate as a whole, as I had thought for some reason. While the figures are still striking, they’re obviously limited, therefore, in determining how people might vote on the issue in the future. It would be interesting, though, to see quite how different the figures would be if the population surveyed had been wider, as I don’t know of any serious research which has ever attempted this.
I don’t think this impacts too heavily on the overall argument, but that’s for the readers to decide for themselves.
Outstanding stuff Smiffy. One of the best pieces I’ve read on the subject.
But I do think you might be slightly overplaying the importance size of the majority though. The survey says 51% believe abortion should be permissable in all circumstances. Eight percent are opposed to it under any circumstances and 39% in ’some’.
To me, that could also be read as 47% of people opposed to a pro-choice abortion regime as the conditions cited include things like rape, incest and ’seriously endangered’ health or life of the woman concerned.
Also worth noting, that support for the pro-choice position is age related, with younger people far more likely to be pro-choice, but also far less likely to vote on it.
I think there is an emerging pro-choice majority, but it is very much in an embryonic stage at this point. I also can’t help but remember the nightmare that was the ‘95 Divorce referendum when despite all the predictions and all the sympathy for unhappily married couples, the anti-divorce campaign ambushed us and only lost by less than 10,000 votes, less than one percent.
I’m pro-choice myself, but I think we lack two things. We lack a clear and established pro-choice majority among the people, and we lack, as you very clearly point out, political leaders prepared to lead the way on the issue, with the noble exception of Higgins and the SP.
“I think there is an emerging pro-choice majority, but it is very much in an embryonic stage”
!!!
If we’re not careful, it could be strangled in the womb….so to speak
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“while the so-called ‘pro-lifers’ smugly parade their piety”
That’s not religious piety, it’s opposition to what they regard as the killing of life at its earliest stages.
Now, if piety is basically pomposity and shrillness, and has nothing to do with religion, then perhaps the stance of the left in regard to the United States or capitalism in general could be called piety, no?
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A friend said to me yesterday that this didn’t warrant being an election issue – apparently it’s not, given how Enda and Bertie managed to sit on the fence all last week when asked for their views. Pat Rabbitte was the only politician (that I heard anyway) who nailed his colours to the mast, saying that the girl should be allowed to travel.
Excellent article. Have been surprised by the lack of commentary in Irish blogland.
“That’s not religious piety”
Yes it is – it is precisely what it is. Piety is about proclaiming your religious virtue while acting in such a way that hurts real people – in claiming to do Good, derived from God whiole actually serving yourself.
AMDG+
HOW MOTHER IRELAND MAY BE LEFT WITH NO BABY TO HOLD.
The Catholics of Mexico City weep and the Vatican hangs its head in disbelief. Yet even before we stop reeling at the events which caused one of the strongest Catholic countries to embrace abortion, the ambitious pro choice machine sets itself up to devour the country which is arguably the jewel of the Catholic Crown, Mother Ireland.
Just as in Mexico before the shock of the government U turn on abortion last week, most of Catholic Ireland sits comfortably watching the TV as, behind the scenes, both North and South of the border, the abortion propaganda machine is in full swing. The D case, wherein a 17 year old girl, in the care of the Health Authority, sought to abort her anacephalic baby, is a legal anathema. Nobody knows exactly why this case came before the courts. The central question was, “could she have legally travelled for an abortion to England?” The answer, which everybody already knew, was “yes”. Notwithstanding, the case provided an excellent vehicle to discuss the question of abortion of a disabled baby, specifically one which suffers from anencephaly. Every pro abortion pundit jumped on the bandwagon , successfully steering it away from the real question of “how did this case end up in the High Court?” to a discussion on how cruel we are as a nation for not allowing the abortion of this baby here, on Irish sod.
Meanwhile North of the border Mr Blair’s Labour government has just handed over to a Stormont devolved government. Amid the back patting and hullabaloo about Blairs’ “legacy” in Northern Ireland, there is a more sinister “legacy” lurking. Under the British direct rule Minister, Mr Goggins, the Health Department drew up a set of abortion guidelines for the medical profession which will allow for abortion to full term if the woman says she is mentally unable to continue with her pregnancy, along with a provision whereby the refusal of consent for abortion by a girl under 18 years of age can be overridden. The guidelines are based on overemphasising an exception to the Criminal Law which makes abortion illegal in most circumstances. The guidelines are only at draft stage and await implementation. Legally these guidelines are a shambles, practically they are a nightmare, ethically they spell the end to any claim Ireland might have had to being a Christian country.
What is perhaps most interesting is the way in which abortion may be introduced into Ireland. Traditionally the majority in Ireland have been staunchly against abortion. The Irish constitution gives protection to the Unborn from conception. There was a failed attempt to introduce the UK Abortion Act into the North of Ireland which couldn’t get past its’ democratically elected assembly members, who represent the peoples’ anti abortion feeling. Failing to win over the majority and having no pro abortion movement on the ground, as opposed to the pro life movement which is alive and kicking, the proponents of abortion have preferred another strategy. By using the courts to tease out judgements on exceptions in the law, and obiter dictum judicial pronouncements, which were never meant to be legally binding, the pro abortion lobby wave their little victories like flags as they dance around the Constitution and the Law avoiding the tricky question of democracy.
There has been a constant international assault on Catholic and Christian abortion free countries. There is a ship that actually sails about offering on board abortions. (Perhaps there might be an opening for a ship that offers on board criminal hangings in countries where executions are illegal? ) Poland has braced itself against the tirade, Portugal has fallen. But what is it about abortion that makes its supporters so determined to enforce it even in countries where it is not wanted? Is it their refusal to go with the flow that irks? Or is it more than that, is it their religious culture? The fact that such cultures revere motherhood and motherhood is powerful is the clue. An attack on motherhood is an attack on a culture. Remember, “For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world”.
While it’s only to be expected that lunatics will attempt to piggyback on this blog, and spam us with comments that don’t even try to address the points made in the original post, it’s a little rich for those like ‘eodon’ above to be lecturing an Irish site about ‘Mother Ireland’. We’ll work it out for ourselves, thanks.