Hi °C | Lo °C
The issue of abortion is back on the political agenda, and most Irish people are probably wondering, why?
Some will have a vague notion that a court somewhere in Europe found that our abortion law is in breach of some human rights and that's why we're talking about it.
They may even think the court in question is a court of the EU and therefore its ruling is binding. Even our Health Minister James Reilly made that error in the Dail last April.
The court in question is, in fact, the European Court of Human Rights and it is part of the Council of Europe, not the European Union. Therefore its rulings are not binding on us.
What the court found is that the rights of a pregnant woman who was suffering from cancer were not clear under Irish law. Could she receive treatment, even though it might harm or kill her unborn child, or not?
Note that the court didn't tell us we had to legalise abortion. It merely told us we had to make clear the circumstances under which abortion is or is not permitted.
In fact, in the case of the above she could have received the necessary chemotherapy.
To this end, the Government has asked an expert group to recommend ways in which we can implement the ECHR ruling even though no woman in Ireland has died as a result of the present situation.
Pro-life groups fear the Government will end up legislating for the X case.
The X case allows a woman to have an abortion, at any time during the pregnancy, if in the opinion of a single doctor she might commit suicide even though no research has ever shown that abortion protects against suicide.
It is 20 years since the Irish Supreme Court ruled in the X case and Labour is determined to see the introduction of either legislation or regulations to give meaning to that ruling.
Just prior to the general election I wrote that a vote for Labour was a vote for abortion. I was roundly condemned by Michael D Higgins, among others, for saying this.
The current push to legalise abortion under certain circumstances proves that I was correct.
Labour's determination is causing consternation among those Fine Gael TDs and senators who are opposed to abortion.
What will the cabinet do? We can assume the Labour ministers favour introduction of X-case legislation or regulations. Quite a few of the Fine Gael ministers would as well.
Pro-life groups are lobbying politicians hard to either maintain the status quo (which protects both mother and child) or have another referendum.
Enda Kenny has to calculate whether vetoing legislation will pull down the Government or whether introducing it will bring down the Government.
But even if it didn't come to that, he has to calculate whether the introduction of abortion will harm Fine Gael electorally and the answer is, it certainly will.
However, there is something else he has to think about, namely what effect will the present controversy have on the chances of the upcoming children's rights referendum being passed?
It will occur to a lot of voters that it is highly contradictory for the Government to be debating the introduction of abortion in Ireland on the one hand, and to be placing a children's rights referendum before the voters on the other.
Will we give additional rights to one category of children while greatly -- nay fatally -- weakening the rights of another category?
Perhaps some will resolve this dilemma by convincing themselves that the developing foetus isn't a child. But then again, whenever in the past we have resolved to deprive a category of human beings of their full rights we have often convinced ourselves first that they aren't fully human.
Supporters of a children's rights referendum, including the Government, insist we must "cherish all the children of the nation equally". Are unborn children to be cherished a little less equally? A society that is truly pro-child will protect children at all stages of life.
Irish Independent
