CONTRACEPTION BILL:IRELAND WOULD "cease to be one of the last outposts of moral society" on the removal of the contraceptives ban, one of many letters of objection sent to taoiseach Charles Haughey said.
On November 1st, contraceptives became legally available in Ireland for the first time in 45 years but only on prescription from a doctor. These regulations enacted the Family Planning Act 1979, described by Haughey as an “Irish solution to an Irish problem”.
It sought to meet the Supreme Court’s ruling on the right of married couples to privacy and to appease Catholic Ireland.
A group of women from Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, wrote of the “abhorrent inevitable consequences” of the Bill, including that Ireland would “cease to be one of the last outposts of moral society”, there would be sales pressure “on our children” backed by the contraceptive industry and eventually legalised abortion.
The writer, Mary T Geever, recalls former Fine Gael taoiseach Liam Cosgrave as a “man of moral conscience”.
“Would you want the people of Ireland to remember you as the taoiseach who introduced contraception, facilitating sin among weak-willed teenagers?” she wrote, and imposing a financial burden on taxpayers who would have to finance the treatment of “veneral [sic] disease”.
The letter is signed by Mrs Mary T Geever, Patricia Moynihan, Nuala Frain and Mary F Durkin and is accompanied by a petition with 50 signatories, mainly from Ballaghaderreen
Another objector sent Haughey a blessed miraculous medal.
“Perhaps you might keep it in your pocket,” wrote Josephine Wren from Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin. “It seems to me that you tried to please everyone. The result is that no one is pleased, least of all God!” In his reply, Haughey said it was “very kind of her” to send the medal but he did not mention if he would carry it in his pocket. The November 1st date for the legalising of contraceptives caused consternation for one Co Cork writer, who said legalisation on All Saints Day was “an insult to all the saints, holy souls and Irish people”.
A Dún Laoghaire-based doctor, Noel Smyth, wrote in February 1980 that he was disappointed that Haughey's wife was "interrogated" on the "scurrilous" radio programme Women Today.
He was “grieved” to hear her “prompted” to advocate contraception, complaining that the programme had previously covered the topic of “electric vibrators”.
The taoiseach’s files released in the 1980 State papers contain far fewer letters from the opposite argument.
However Haughey did receive letters objecting that the regulations were too restrictive from groups such as the Women’s Abortion Action Campaign.
