Ahern criticised for failing to act on abortion mandate

The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) has criticised the Taoiseach for what it says is the failure of the Government to adopt the mandate of the recent abortion referendum.

The IFPA says that since the beginning of the election campaign Mr Ahern "has danced around questions on abortion" and has no clear plan on how to deal with it.

The group called on the Taoiseach to outline how he plans to deal with the rejection of the abortion referendum, should he be re-elected.

IFPA chief executive Mr Tony O’Brien said the Taoiseach "indicated that the issue would need to be looked at, but there has been no clarity on how he proposes to do this."

Mr O’Brien said: "In the run up to the March referendum, the Taoiseach dishonestly warned that a no vote would leave him with no option but to introduce a liberal abortion regime.

However, now that this referendum has been rejected, he is failing to take any mandate from the result."

He said: "It was unacceptable that, after five years when the issue of abortion absorbed so much civil service time and political debate, the political parties have hardly mentioned it during this General Election campaign."

"Above all, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have a duty to indicate the stance of their respective party on the issue, given that it was their decision to drag the country through a fruitless and divisive referendum campaign in March."

He warned: "It would be wrong of political parties to pre-suppose that those voters who rejected the referendum will not make their candidate choice on the basis of their position on abortion."