C of I synod calls for abortion to be made illegal in most cases

A report prepared for the Church of Ireland General Synod has proposed that abortion be made illegal, while being permitted in specific circumstances. It also favours the issue being dealt with by legislation rather than referendum.

The General Synod begins in Belfast this morning and continues until Wednesday.

In its report to the Role of the Church Committee, the medical ethics working group said the exceptional circumstances in which abortion should be permitted included: "Situations where the continuance of the pregnancy represent(s) a substantial medical risk to the life of the mother; [where there is] lethal to severe congenital abnormality in the foetus; [where there is] pregnancy after incest . . . or after rape." In both such cases "evidence would be required".

Abortion might also be permitted in "cases where `the probable consequence of the pregnancy would be to render a woman a mental and physical wreck' ", it said, and in "genuine cases of threatened suicide". It recognised that the risk of suicide was a particularly difficult medical condition to quantify, but did not wish "to exclude genuine cases while not denying the potential for abuse".

All such cases would require "precise and clear definition" to ensure they remained exceptions and did not become a "back door" to abortion, the report said. And, while recognising that legislation along such lines might require constitutional change, it believed "legislation has greater potential for reflecting the complex opinions on the issue within Irish society, a diversity we find reflected in our own church".

Such legislation should clarify its area of concern "by defining both an upper and a lower [time] limit for its remit". In each instance where abortion was to be permitted it should be reported to a designated officer, preferably a member of the judiciary with knowledge of the area and "whose sole basis for judgment would be adherence to the criteria in the legislation".

This approach "based on a ban on abortion but allowing for some exceptions" would mean that, while "abortion remains illegal, the criteria can be changed by amending legislation if problems of definition arise (e.g. if it became apparent that a criterion had the potential to become a `back door', or if a new situation arose which had to be addressed); and even those most opposed to abortion allow that exceptions should exist, often by making a distinction between direct and indirect abortion". The approach suggested would allow for such exceptions, too, it said.

Other issues to be discussed this week include proposals to reduce representation at the General Synod; a new church hymnal; church finances; dealing with sectarianism; asylum-seekers; and the international debt burden.

The report on Drumcree, from the church's Standing Committee, simply notes events there last year when a General Synod resolution, urging that the invitation to the service be withdrawn if undertakings were not given, was ignored by the rector, the select vestry and the Orange Order. It "regrets that no direct response was made to the expressed wishes of the General Synod".