The Government is announcing a comprehensive approach to the abortion issue on three different planes - constitutional, legislative and caring, practical intervention, according to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
It has given final approval to the publication of the text of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution (Protection of Human Life in Pregnancy) Bill, Mr Ahern said in a statement yesterday. The Taoiseach said he had been convinced a key element in establishing a national consensus and in creating a workable legal basis for protecting the lives of both women and the unborn was to give the people a direct say in resolving that "unfinished business".
"That was my stated position in the 1997 General Election. While it may never be possible to satisfy any point of view completely, it was my hope that this Government could, by fostering a reasonable calm and structured national debate, develop a consensus about how that 'unfinished business' might finally be resolved," he said.
The outcome of deliberations in the form of the Green Paper and the All-Party Committee report had led the Government to conclude there was no simple sentence, or paragraph, that could be inserted into the Constitution which, by itself, would amount to a balanced, effective, legal response to the complex medical and legal issues that surround protection of human life in pregnancy.
"The proper place to strike that complex balance is in legislation - not in the Constitution. Today's proposals are the first legislative response to the issues raised by the 1983 Amendment and by the X case."
Outline of the Proposal:
In brief, the Government has decided to put an amendment to the people that will add two new subsections to Article 40.3 of the Constitution:
The first gives constitutional protection for the adoption by the Oireachtas of a legislative approach. This guarantees the terms of the legislation will be seen and approved by the people in advance;
The second provides that any future legislative amendment must be approved by the people before it is signed into law by the President.
These new provisions will be inserted into the Constitution as Article 40.3.4 and 40.3.5 respectively.
A key element of the proposal is that the amendment will only take effect if the Oireachtas within a short period enacts a law exactly in the terms of the text seen and approved by the people at the time they vote. This mechanism, of making a constitutional amendment conditional on a later legal development, was successfully used in the referendum on the Good Friday agreement.
You will recall that when the people voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Good Friday agreement in a referendum, they decided that the changes to Articles 2 and 3 would only take effect if, and when, the State later became legally bound by the Belfast Agreement.
"I want to stress that the approach being adopted by the Government is to put the issue where it belongs - on a legislative basis. The constitutional changes are designed to ensure that the legislation has a sound constitutional basis, that the careful balance it strikes will not be threatened by a legal challenge from either side of the argument, and to give people the reassurance that they will be consulted in the event that change is proposed in the future."
Mr Ahern said that for the first time, the new law would protect both women and the unborn in pregnancy, and accommodate existing medical practice that safeguards the life of the woman from exposure to real and substantial risk.
"The new law will give complete protection to medical procedures necessary to avoid those risks. In a small number of cases, of strict and undeniable medical necessity, as you know, those procedures can entail or result in ending of the life of the unborn. The new law defines 'abortion' in a way that clearly excludes such ethically legitimate procedures from being termed an abortion for the purposes of our criminal law. Use of the 'morning after' pill and the IUD will be lawful under these proposals.
"The proposed law also provides that risk of suicide will no longer be a ground for legal abortion in the State. I know that this is a difficult issue for many people but I must point out that the suicide risk has only been advanced as a ground for abortion in cases where the State, in one way or another, directly or indirectly, was attempting to restrict the freedom of a woman to travel. The terms of the new law will protect that freedom and will not compromise it in any way.
"I am hopeful that this proposal when debated in the Oireachtas, and among the public, will command general support as a prudent, workable, sensible, caring and compassionate approach to what is for everyone an emotive issue and, for, some the most important issue in their lives," said Mr Ahern.