:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/ZWHDYXRZCTBILT6ADWPFHXGLV4.jpg)
On May 25 we will vote on whether to retain article 40.3.3 (the ‘8th amendment’), which ‘acknowledges the right to life of the unborn… with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother’, or to replace it with a new article 40.3.3 which would read as follows: ‘Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy’.
Two arguments have emerged quite prominently in the campaign which relate to the supposed permissiveness of the proposed new article, both amounting to a concern over the power this new section would give to the Oireachtas.
In the first instance we’re told that the ‘wrong question’ is being put to the Irish people. One proponent of this argument is Anne Rabbitte TD, the Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Children and Youth Affairs, who in an interview with Sarah Bardon (reported in the Irish Times on May 18) said that while she would be voting No, she believed that abortion should be allowed in cases of rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality. In effect what she is proposing (as are other proponents of the argument) is that section 40.3.3 should be amended to allow for terminations of pregnancy only in those specific instances.
This proposal is simply not workable as can be demonstrated by taking the instance of rape, which if contested, can take months to resolve in a court of law, by which time a termination of pregnancy is not possible. The same applies in cases of incest. These very quandaries were considered by the Citizens’ Assembly and the Oireachtas Committee, both of which steered clear of suggesting complex wording in the form of a revised section 40.3.3. It is important to be clear about this: if the Constitution were amended to allow for abortion in cases of rape or incest then it would be incumbent on the authorities to have proof, and that takes time, which, for obvious reasons is not available in the case of a pregnancy.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/3B7P7HZVLIA4CPBIRM4TFSBYBE.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/SJCJFQIHVEWZSJGXUI2DME52SQ.jpg)
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/LSMOJYQWGJIGA5YRKHTSUIY6WI.jpg)
In short, it is disingenuous to suggest that a ‘different question’ could easily have been asked of the Irish people on May 25. The only options available are to retain the article as it is, or, in effect, to remove it and allow the Oireachtas to legislate as appropriate.
Which is where we get to the second misapprehension - generally coming under the slogan ‘don’t trust the politicians’. The argument is that we shouldn’t give free rein to the Oireachtas to legislate on abortion because this will inevitably lead to abortion on demand.
An important detail about Irish politics is being ignored here, namely that our political system is innately conservative: the bulk of our TDs are centrist (with many of them right of centre) in their politics; the Irish left, to this day, remains the weakest and most divided in Europe; in surveys (as colleagues and I report in our forthcoming study of the most recent Irish election) Irish voters are firmly anchored to the centre ground. This is not the sort of political system that is about to introduce a radical liberalization of abortion law.
And it’s not as if party political revolution is in the air. Even in the midst of the worst economic recession in our history, when public anger with established politicians was at its highest, we still ended up - in 2011 and 2016 - with governments formed around our established political parties.
For that matter, even if we vote for change on Friday, the current instability in our political system means that it is likely that any effort to introduce new abortion legislation will take months, and could well occur after the next election (thus giving citizens every opportunity to lobby candidates about the legislation).
The two misapprehensions about ‘the question’ and about the role of the Oireachtas are based on a misunderstanding of our system of representative democracy. In a modern day democracy such as ours it is the role of parliament to legislate, to design public policy that meets the needs of Irish citizens. That is what we elect our TDs to do, and if we don’t like what they do we can ‘kick the rascals out’.
If on May the 25th we vote to change the Constitution, this will give the Oireachtas the power to legislate on terminations of pregnancy. We should let them get on with it.
David Farrell (Head of Politics and International Relations at UCD) is the co-editor of The Post-Crisis Irish Voter, which will be published by Manchester University Press in the autumn.