Sir, – Owen Crotty's letter raises valid points in relation to the abortion debate (September 29th). As someone who passionately believes that the Eighth Amendment needs to be repealed and that a humane framework for abortion should be introduced, I have concerns about the repeal campaign.
While it is clear that there is a growing broad demand for change in how crisis pregnancies are handled in this country, there is clearly some resistance to removing the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution without having a legislative framework ready to replace it.
The pro-choice movement is a broad tent, encompassing a range of demands from modest measures in tragic cases of fatal foetal abnormality to so-called “abortion on demand”.
The problem with this is that while they may agree on the primary goal of amending the Constitution, there is no consensus on what should take its place, and this is often apparent.
My fear is that if the debate does not move towards discussing the kind of regime that will replace the current one, including specific limits on when procedures can be done, that the electorate will err on the side of caution.
If a referendum on repealing the Eighth Amendment is lost, then it will set the campaign back considerably, and we would be unlikely to see another for some time.
Legislation can be tweaked in the future, but it is imperative for women in crisis pregnancies that this referendum is won, so I hope that the pro-choice campaign can undermine opposition claims by coalescing behind a humane and reasonable framework that a majority of the electorate can support. – Yours, etc,
DAVE McGINN,
Tallaght,
Dublin 24.
Sir, – Whatever the impact of the Eighth Amendment on constitutional law, it did not reduce the need for abortion services. In fact, the number of women giving Irish addresses at UK abortion clinics nearly doubled from 3,650 in 1982 to 6,673 in 2001. The subsequent decrease in annual figures, to the 2015 figure of 3,451, is not attributable to the constitutional ban on abortion either, but to wider access to contraception and the reduction in unplanned pregnancies.
The criminal sanctions, legal restrictions and constitutional ban on access to abortion violate women’s human rights, harm women’s health, and reinforce stigma and discrimination. The Irish Family Planning Association pregnancy counselling service hears every day from those who experience these harms: women and girls who choose to end a pregnancy that is unplanned, unwanted, has become a crisis, and who are unable to do so within Ireland.
The health needs of these women and girls must be placed at the centre of discussions of future abortion policy and services.
Repealing the Eighth Amendment will mean that the legislature is finally free to do just this. – Yours, etc,
NIALL BEHAN,
Chief Executive,
Irish Family
Planning Association,
Solomons House,
Pearse Street,
Dublin 2.
Sir, –I thank Senator Ivana Bacik for her letter of 1st October in which she confirms what I wrote in my letter of 30th September. Labour Party policy is to campaign for repeal of the Eighth Amendment and then to lobby to enact legislation that would facilitate a mainland-UK style abortion regime in Ireland. Senator Ivana Bacik repeats her assertion that the UK system does not facilitate "abortion on demand" (October 1st). But this assertion flies in the face of testimony from UK medical circles actively involved in operating the UK abortion services.
In the UK, 98 per cent of abortions are granted on the grounds that the pregnancy carries a risk to the mental health of the mother.
But this risk is not objectively tested, as acknowledged in 2013 by Prof Clare Gerada, chairwoman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, who said, “What we have is what the woman tells us. It isn’t for me to judge her or to be moralistic. It is for me to explore other options, but to take her at face value”. Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, made similar remarks. In other words, if a woman asks for an abortion she will almost certainly get one. That is abortion on demand.
UK abortion rates have doubled since 1970, despite easy access to contraception. David Steel, sponsor of the 1967 Abortion Act, has acknowledged that abortion has become “a form of contraception”. He said he never envisaged how many hundreds of thousands of abortions would take place every year as a result of introducing the Act.
If Ireland introduces a similar Abortion Act surely the same thing will happen here. – Yours, etc,
WILLIAM REVILLE,
Waterfall,
Co Cork.