Abortion referendum Vote no!

By Orla Drohan

(First published in Socialist Voice, Feb 2002)

On 6 March, people in the South are being asked to vote, yet again, in a referendum designed to write restrictions on abortion into the constitution.

It seems this referendum is the price that Bertie Ahern readily paid to gain the backing of the four 'independent' TDs for the current government. Ahern may also be attempting to copper-fasten the support of what he perceives to be Fianna Fail's core voters.

This abortion referendum has nothing to offer women. It will not prevent a single one of the 7,000 Irish abortions that take place annually in Britain. If the government were serious about reducing the number of crisis pregnancies, they would put resources into universal access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, including free contraception, which they have consistently refused to do.

However, at the very time when the government is seeking more restrictive laws on abortion, the electorate is more progressive on this issue than ever before. There has been a sea change in attitudes since the 1992 referendum. Most people believe that the option of abortion should be available to women in certain circumstances.

A poll in Ireland on Sunday (October 2001) showed that 49% of women and men want access to abortion to be made easier rather than harder. This shift in opinion is particularlv marked among the voung and among women. Three out of five women aged 18-34 believe that there should be easier access to abortion facilities. In this context, the government's referendum proposals may be defeated.

A poll in the Irish Independent (December 2001) showed that only one in five voters backed a total ban on abortion and that 44% backed the Supreme Court decision in the X case that allowed abortion where there was "substantial risk" to the life of the mother, including from suicide risk.

The main purpose of this referendum is to roll back the Supreme Court ruling by specifically excluding suicide risk as grounds for an abortion.

The government would have us believe that if the "loophole" whereby suicidal woman were entitled to an abortion was not closed off, then women, with the collusion of the mental health profession, would literally be queuing up to pretend that they were suicidal in order to obtain abortions for a myriad of "social reasons". This is scare mongering, and implies that a mass of irresponsible, selfish women will lie in order to have an abortion.

The proposal to discard suicide as a basis for abortion simply ignores the recent reality. The fact is that both the young women in the X case and C cases were suicidal because of the circumstances surrounding their pregnancies. Rather than having the courage to deal with such personal tragedies, this government is displaying its reactionary hypocrisy by in effect saying such problems must be exported out of sight.

The Irish establishment have accepted that abortion is "tolerable", as long as the Irish women who have abortions get them outside of this state's jurisdiction. This proposal is disgustingly dishonest and is a cowardly avoidance of the real issue at hand. It demonstrates that neither the government nor the so-called pro-life groups give a damn about women, some of whom could be the victims of terrible crimes.

Abortion for tens of thousands of women in this country has or will be a reality; and legislation should not be brought in that flies in the face of that reality. There are verv real medical, social and economic reasons why women feel that they can't go through with a pregnancy and therefore the Socialist Party believes these women should have the right to choose and that abortion should be legal within this state.

The government claims that its legislation will give legal protection to "medical procedures" (i.e. abortions) carried out to "prevent a real and substantial risk of loss of the woman's life" are extremely disingenuous.

Abortions which are necessary to save women's lives are carried out regularly in Irish hospitals under the constitutional provision guaranteeing women "equal right to life".

Neither has the government any business congratulating itself about the freedom to travel and information, these basic democratic rights were won in the 1992 abortion referendum.

Moreover, it is important to make the distinction between the freedom to travel and the right to travel. Freedom to travel means little to the woman who cannot afford the approximate €900 to avail of an abortion in Britain.

In this was this government and the previous Fine Gael and Labour administration clearly discriminate against women on the basis of their class and economic status. All the main capitalist parties stand absolutely condemned for their complete inability to develop Ireland as a modern, progressive state where the individual rights of all citizens are defended.

No matter what the result in the forthcoming referendum, women and men will not accept a return to the restrictions of the past. It will not stop the growing desire for real social change in Ireland. These parties and the system they represent will always be like a ball and chain holding back ordinary people.

The exploitation and oppression of women can only be overcome when they are overthrown. As a step in that struggle, the Socialist party believes that the need to face up to the abortion issue in an open an honest manner is one of the most important issues facing Ireland today and the first step in that process is a No vote on 6 March.

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