Abortion: making waves

The abortion debate took a number of interesting twists over the past fortnight. There was an element of coincidence about the confluence of events – but the net effect was that the A-word was seldom far away from the front pages of the national newspapers.

The biggest flurry of media interest surrounded the arrival in Ireland of the Women On Waves floating abortion clinic. The visit of the Dutch-registered ship, the Aurora, to Irish waters was dismissed by anti-abortion groups as a publicity stunt. There was no attempt to disagree on the part of those behind the Women On Waves project. Its founder, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts emphasised that the group had come to Ireland in solidarity with Irish Women, who have been denied their human rights in relation to abortion.

In the event, because of a concern with the position of the ship in relation to Dutch law, no abortions were in fact carried out during the visit. However, the presence of the Aurora certainly served to highlight the essentially farcical nature of the Irish prohibition on abortion.

It is impossible to obtain an abortion legally in Ireland, except in the most extreme of medical circumstances, in which it can be established that there is a real and substantive threat to the life of the pregnant woman.

However, it would have been possible for a pregnant Irish woman to board the abortion ship and to undergo termination procedures without any fear of breaking the law, once the ship had docked outside Irish waters. If the Aurora achieved nothing else, it certainly gave an even greater symbolic meaning to the idea that Irish women who wish to terminate a pregnancy are forced to 'take the boat'.

Also during the last fortnight, a motion was passed by the Medical Council, a statutory body appointed by the Government, which was aimed at easing the ethical guidelines on abortion. That motion subsequently ran into difficulties, with its legality apparently being successfully challenged and it appears now that the medical council may be plunged into a period of internecine conflict. However, the fact that the motion was passed in the first place indicated that there may indeed be a shift of opinion among Irish doctors regarding an issue on which they have always stood, as a body of professionals, shoulder to shoulder with the most reactionary elements in Irish society.

Meanwhile, in the North, there was also a significant move, with the successful beginning of a legal action by the Northern Family Planning Association in their campaign to bring the rights of women in Northern Ireland, in relation to abortion, into line with those of women in Britain generally. While this is only the beginning of a process that could take years, it does hold out the possibility that within the forseeable future, abortions will be carried out legally, officially, and without either shame or equivocation, on the island of Ireland, even if only in the North.

With that series of pro-choice initiatives as foreground, another murky saga relating to abortion hit the headlines. A woman was rushed to a hospital in Waterford, following a brain haemmorage. In her thirties, she was pregnant.

The foetus was 14 weeks in the womb – some eight weeks short of a time when it might realistically be considered to have the prospect of an independent existence. Sadly, the woman, who was on a life-support machine, was diagnosed as being brain dead. The appropriate course of action would seem to have been obvious. The partner of the woman resigned himself to the inevitable, and accepted that the life support should be switched off.

But the effects of Article 40.3.3 of the Irish constitution – the so-called ProLife Amendment – run deep. The hospital was concerned that it might be in breach of the constitutional right of the 'unborn', if it took this simple and common-sense course of action. And so the hospital sought legal opinion. They were advised that under no circumstance should they withdraw life-support without a court order giving them permission to do so.

As it happened the couple were from London. Thus the husband of the unfortunate woman, who was quite certain in his desire that the life-support machine should be turned off, was plunged into a harrowing trauma that never would have arisen if the terrible incident had occurred in England, where he lives.

As it happens, nature intervened. The foetus died within a few days, and the hospital then turned off the life-support machine, allowing the woman to die too. But the fact that unfortunate individuals could become caught up in a bizarre and emotionally damaging situation of this kind surely underlines the unsuitability of the Constitutiuon as a vehicle for dealing with an endlessly complex issue like abortion.

The first half of June saw one other event which has potentially serious implications in relation to abortion – the decision of the Irish people to vote No to the Nice Treaty. There was, of course, a complex of reasons for this historic rejection of the latest step in the expansion and development of the European project. However, the fact is that the anti-abortion campaign played a very significant role in the No To Nice campaign. With quite a bit of the publicity focussing on the born-again Euro MP, and anti-abortion campaigner, Dana, you can be certain that a lot of effort will go into making this point come general election time.

Fianna Fail committed themselves to another referendum on abortion – one that would definitively secure the right to life of the 'unborn'! – in advance of the last general election. Having failed to deliver on this, they may well now be tempted to put an even harder set of promises on the table next time around, to appease the anti-abortion factions.

Thus, while the indications generally are that we are slowly advancing towards a more mature, compassionate and sensible position on the issue of abortion, such a commitment might change the complexion of things considerably. The next few months could prove to be very interesting indeed.