NEWTON'S OPTIC: IF THE Government is to win a second Lisbon Treaty referendum then it must address the legitimate concerns of No campaigners. Chief among these is the fear that abortion will be introduced to Ireland by a global conspiracy, writes Newton Emerson.
Fortunately, politicians need only look North for a permanent solution to the abortion issue. In 1998 the Belfast Agreement promised a progressive rights-based settlement with equality for all. Many leading human rights activists were appointed to prominent posts in new monitoring bodies. It was widely assumed that they would address the issue of abortion and the legal discrepancy between Northern Ireland and Britain. Yet much to everyone's surprise, the subject was never seriously raised again.
Nobody can explain why so many human rights activists fell silent upon assuming so many well-paid political sinecures, but there is no question that their silence was intentional.
In 2003, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission completed its first attempt at drafting a Bill of Rights. This was an ambitious project with the potential to create hundreds of well-paid political sinecures. Hundreds of human rights activists participated in the exercise. Yet the only mention of abortion in the final text was the following sentence:
"The commission has concluded that it would be inappropriate for the issue of abortion to be resolved by the Bill of Rights; it is best dealt with by specific legislation drafted by democratically elected representatives."
Oddly, the text went on to explain why everything else was best not dealt with by democratically elected representatives.
In 2005, the British government appointed Women's Coalition founder Monica McWilliams to the £60,000-a-year post of Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissioner. As a professor of women's studies and the leader of a feminist political party, it was safely assumed that Ms McWilliams would address abortion.
However, the commissioner has taken no official position on the subject.
She has expressed concern for women in the criminal justice system. She has also expressed concern over other legal discrepancies between Northern Ireland and Britain. But she has not expressed any concern at the criminalisation of a woman's right to choose in Northern Ireland alone.
This year, Northern Ireland completed its latest attempt at drafting a Bill of Rights, with the publication of a 260-page consultation document. Among the hundreds of human rights campaigners who participated were self-described leaders of "the women's sector". The seven drafting committees included a "women's working group".
Yet the final text merely states that: "the best way to deal with the potentially impossible-to-resolve issue of abortion [is] through the protection of physical autonomy." This apparently means that women have the autonomy to physically go to England.
Last week, the DUP announced that it had secured the regional ban on abortion in return for voting with the British government on 42-day detention without trial. Once again, Northern Ireland's government-funded human rights industry had nothing to add.
Holding the Lisbon referendum cost €6 million and abortion-related referendums take place in the Republic roughly every six years. So the annual cost to the taxpayer of parking the issue is €1 million. It would be far more cost-effective to follow the North's example and spend that sum on political sinecures for the human rights lobby.
Or political sinecures for the anti-abortion lobby.
Whatever.