Another chapter in the endless consultative process on abortion has closed with the appearance of representatives of six of the main churches in Ireland before the Joint Oireachtas All-Party Committee on the Constitution yesterday. The oral hearings were arranged when the Catholic Church insisted last month on its right to have its views on the subject aired in public. The Committee was correct to facilitate the presentations. The moral guidance offered by the different churches, however, served only to confirm what the Committee already knows: there are deep divisions on abortion at all levels in Irish society.
The Catholic Church delegation, led by Archbishop Desmond Connell, made the case for a new constitutional amendment that would protect the right to life of the unborn child, "while recognising that an expectant mother who is ill must receive such medical treatment as is necessary, even when that treatment, as a side-effect, puts her unborn child at risk". Bishop Laurence Ryan, in his opening statement on behalf of the Irish Bishops' Conference, said that the principle enunciated by the Supreme Court in the X case in 1992 was seriously flawed. The majority Church came out firmly in support of the Pro-Life Campaign's demand for a new anti-abortion referendum.
The Bishop of Down and Dromore, Dr Harold Miller, enunciated the official view that the Church of Ireland was opposed to another referendum on abortion. The Constitution did not allow for the nuances which could be catered for in legislation. He was compelled to explain that an earlier submission to the Committee by the Church's medical ethics working group failed to be accepted by the General Synod last May. The Church's official position, he said, remained "an essentially conservative, but not totally black-and-white one". The introduction of legislation in the circumstances of the X case was the chosen option of the Presbyterian Church. The Methodist Church also called for the issue to be dealt with by way of legislation without ruling out a referendum to give public endorsement to this course of action. The Chief Rabbi said that the Jewish Representative Council would not seek to impose its views on others. And Islamic representatives pointed out that abortion was forbidden as a crime except where there is medical proof that the mother's life was under threat.
The positions put by leading Churchmen are part of the constitutional, legal, medical, moral, social and ethical calculus of the current abortion debate. The Government's Green Paper on Abortion was published last September and sent to the Oireachtas Committee for its recommendations. The public hearings have now ended. The Taoiseach has told Independent TDs that the Committee's report will be sent to a Cabinet sub-committee for further consideration when it is received in November. This Government promised to address the abortion issue during the last general election. It has been placed in a concentric circle ever since. It is high time to make the hard decision which has been delayed for three years. Ireland's abortion problem cannot be solved by the simple expedient of exporting it. There are limited circumstances in which it has to be be squared up to and honestly addressed within our shores. Offering Irish women the option of a flight to London is no more than a cowardly abdication.