“This debate absorbed the attention of the entire country for several months, a sign of the extent to which people generally, if sometimes obscurely, perceive abortion as a crucially important defining issue for the society and culture as a whole”
(The Abortion Papers Ireland, pg. 5)
According to Frances Fitzgerald, Chairwoman of the Irish Council for the Status of women, it is the men that make all the decisions in Irish life and particularly this issue but how little input they have on other issues that concern women and may need their assistance. She continued discussing the implications for women similar to the “X case” and of the Maastrict Treaty, and described how women lack control and responsibility within Ireland. Women have taken a back seat on political and moral issues within our country and the embezzlement of language and word play has become primary according to Frances Fitzgerald and numerous women activists.
According to Ailbhe Smyth in The Abortion Papers Ireland, the thousands of women who travel to Britain annually for abortions are unaccounted for in the Irish census. This need does not suit the image preferred by our Government and our religious sector and therefore they deny the existence of abortion. Up until the 1960’s it was customary in Ireland for single women who became pregnant to be imprisoned in convents where they worked at hard labour until their baby was born. The stigma attached to unmarried women who became pregnant was extensive. As Ailbhe Smyth put it “out of sight, out of mind”, was the favoured option. The families of these young women abandoned and disowned them in their time of need due to the “shame they had brought on their family”. Forgiveness was out of the question for most. The close links to the Catholic Church and its strong preaching regarding “no sex before marriage” was the greatest single influence on Irish families and their way of thinking. Women were forced to travel to London in shameful secrecy, very often alone and impoverished due to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Abortion is one of the most contentious affairs in Irish society and has been for many years. It is at the core of political, legal, moral and religious disputes. Although issues have been raised to elucidate the definition of life itself, a prominent dispute intertwined in the abortion issue. When does life begin? At the moment of conception or two months into pregnancy or is it when the baby is born? Among the array of questions raised are as follows; does the foetus have human status rights or not? Is the woman obliged, once pregnant to give birth regardless of her personal choice? A human embryo exists from implantation until the eighth week; a foetus is “the unborn entity from about the eighth week of pregnancy, when brainwaves can be monitored. Many of these issues cause considerable debate amongst campaigners for and against abortion, and agreements on any of them appear remote.
In F.M. Kamn’s book, Creation and Abortion she presents “A basic Abortion Argument”. Summing up her argument she claims that it is a woman’s fundamental right over her body to choose whether or not she wants an abortion. She argues that the only major concern is for the mother and the mother’s rights. Even if the foetus was awarded human status, Kamn insists its rights are still subordinate to that of the mother. She also progressed to point out that a woman is not obliged to keep the foetus just because it is its sole factor for survival.
There is various reasons whey women travel from Ireland to Britain seeking abortions annually. The arguments for and against the issue are both substantial. A mother has the right at present to abort a foetus, whether it is severely handicapped or not is not always an issue. The main stance in Britain is whether or not the woman feels suicidal, or the foetus has physical or mental deformities. If a woman decides to abort a foetus on the grounds that it is severely handicapped that should be her personal choice and her partners, it should not be the Constitution that decides. If she feels she would be unable to cope with the baby if she went to full term then maybe this is the best option for her, another woman may still decide to have this baby regardless of the implications. Both are within their rights to choose, after all they are the people who will be rearing the child for the rest of their lives.
In her book, The Uses of Philosophy Mary Warnock rejects “the principle that all human life is of equal value”. She opposes Binchy’s argument that all human beings have a right to life. She claims that
a) We have a right to kill certain newly born infants
b) Therefore why do some people believe it is wrong to kill certain unborn infants?
Mary Warnock claims that severely handicapped neonates do not have a right to life, because their life chances are seen as very poor.
Professor W. Binchy’s article “Abortion and human rights” which was written in response to David Mc Connell, a Trinity professor who had “advocated a change in the Constitution to permit the abortion of severely handicapped foetuses”.
Binchy’s main argument is evident from the following quote
“If it is not legitimate to permit the killings of beings who have been born, why should it be legitimate to kill them before their birth?”
Binchy has argued that there is no basis for authorising the killing by abortion of the handicapped unborn. He asks:
“Is it essentially that unborn children have a radically more restricted right to life than those who have been born, and that this right is supposed to be disposed of at the wishes of the parents?”
He proposes that the reason for abortion’s wide acceptance by many is due to
“The profound misunderstanding of their humanity, and a denial of their entitlement, as members of the human community, not to be killed even where those who chose to bring about their death do so with a wish to protect them from future suffering”
J.J. Thomson would argue that the foetus is not a person and does not have a right to the use of the body in which it was conceived. Binchy would attack this claim, stating that although it is true by definition that it is not a person, a person by definition being – “an individual having the ability to arrive at decisions by deliberation and to communicate by language”, he also argues that infanticide should not be morally acceptable under any circumstances.
J.J. Thomson has argued her side with the use of fictitious examples that have proven beneficial in portraying her views and instilling them on others. Her first example is of a woman who has been raped and is pregnant as a consequence. The second example is the fictitious one containing a famous unconscious violinist with a fatal kidney ailment. The factitious one is as follows: “The Society of Music Lovers” has claimed that you are the only person with a suitable blood type that can assist him. Therefore without your knowledge they have connected his circulatory system to yours and by doing this your kidneys will extract the toxins from his blood. You are also told that it is only for nine months. This argument demonstrates the right to life argument that is so often mentioned in the abortion debate. Does the violinist have a right to your body? You are told you are his sole factor for survival. Thomson claimed that there is a strong similarity between the two cases. If the woman who has been raped decides to keep the baby it is an act of “Splendid Samaritanism”.
Conversely, as far as the link between abortion and suicide is concerned people in favour of abortion have repeatedly claimed that by withholding abortion from suicidal women, we will be putting women’s lives at risk. In an article in the Evening Herald, Tuesday 19th February 2002, David Thunder claimed that if we disregard the moral dubiousness of offering to abort a woman’s unborn child, to convince her not to take her own there is no evidence to suggest that the abortion will treat her suicidal tendencies. Studies have in fact shown that in a significant percentage of cases, women experience serious depression in the aftermath of an abortion. A recent statement by two of Ireland’s leading psychiatrists, Professor Anthony Clare and Professor Patricia Casey, has also tackled this issue when they claimed
“Those who powerfully demand that women should have the right to choose to abort their unborn babies should not enrol psychiatry or psychiatric justifications for their cause – there are no psychiatric conditions for which abortion is the only answer”
Prof Eamon O Dwyer, professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynaecology, NUI Galway also knocked the arguments using threat of suicide as a basis for their abortion arguments. He stated in the Galway Advertiser, 28 February 2002:
“During 40 years as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in teaching hospitals in Galway and Dublin I cannot recollect a single case of suicide during pregnancy”. He added that the risk factor for suicide was seven times greater following a completed pregnancy.
Albeit, ex-TD, Dr Moosajee Bhamjee, a Clare consultant psychiatrist has claimed that he sees one or two suicidal pregnant women in his practice each year. He continued to maintain that if abortion were not available in the UK there would be a considerably higher amount of suicides among women in Ireland. Dr. Bhamjee claimed that young women and married women who for whatever reason were unable to tell their husbands that they were pregnant had suicidal thoughts. Dr. Bhamjee dismissed the joint statement from leading psychiatrists Prof Anthony Clare and Prof Patricia Casey. His statement came prior to the Referendum that took place on March 6th, 2002. He also made an appeal for a No vote in the forthcoming Referendum that would allow women the right to travel to the UK as they do at present without facing a term in prison on return. The proposed Amendment to the Constitution would restrict medical practice by preventing doctors performing life-saving terminations; it would not protect the morning after pill or the IUD from legal challenge. It would also endanger the lives of women and girls by denying Health Boards the power to take a suicidal rape victim, like the girl in the C Case in 1997, abroad for an abortion. It would deny women who are suicidal the right to have an abortion in Ireland – the X case in 1992. It would criminalize women who tried to perform abortions on themselves and anybody who helps them in any way to obtain an abortion in Ireland. They would face twelve years in prison. The No vote would prevent all of the above. In the Referendum a No vote was campaigned for by Labour also Connacht – Ulster MEP, Dana Rosemary Scallon and by the Pro-Life group. MEP Dana Scallon was criticised by the Catholic churchmen for encouraging a “No vote”. The outcome of the Referendum was a narrow victory for the No campaign, many would say another step forward in the modernisation of our country.
Elis Grealy, Galway for Life, stated that:
“Abortion can be presented as a quick solution to difficulty, but the experience of women shows this is not the case”
She claimed that many women who have spoken to her following an abortion felt a huge relief but within weeks they felt tremendous grief, regret and anguish over the loss of their child. Elis Grealy argued that by allowing women to travel to the UK for abortions the real issues are “swept under the carpet”. Her view is to tackle the underlying problems, the reasons for the abortions e.g. financial problems, no support network in place and their future career. By doing so it will actually help to discourage women from looking for the “quick fix” solution with detrimental effects later in their lives.
There is a wide array of issues relating to abortion that must be tackled, the issue of contraception is first and foremost. It is evident from recent surveys that the use of contraception by Irish women is not taken as seriously as it should, if they do not want to get pregnant and are not willing to bring up a child if they do. Many women admitted to using contraception occasionally, some only on weekends, some using withdrawal methods or following their cycle but with undue care, all with detrimental effects. Abortion was the end result for many of such women; this can only be due to their carelessness. Although the statistics for Irish women’s reasons for abortions would have you believe that the majority of them were suicidal, it seems this is not quite true. The suicidal reason was given in many cases, in a bid to guarantee the abortion went ahead when they were to see the doctors during their consultations prior to the abortion. It is therefore clear from studies on the negligence in contraception use, that a re-education of Irish women is necessary, education programs must be administered to girls as young as 11. This would ensure a better understanding of contraception, the availability and use of it and would in turn help in reducing the number of abortions among Irish women. Another important issue is the availability of clinics where young women particularly in rural areas can remain anonymous as oppose to using local surgeries where the doctor resides in their locality. This has discouraged and prevented many young teenagers from seeking contraception and lacking the assistance they required until it was too late. If we have modernised as a nation, as most people will lead us to believe then these issues should not be shrouded in the secrecy that they once were.
Throughout my essay I have shown countless arguments for and against abortion. Abortion has been an extremely complicated issue in Ireland, in particular since the 1960’s and 1970’s. Prior to this period abortion was an issue masked with silence and shame. In my view abortion should be available on the basis of “the right to choose”. Many people have their own personal reasons for seeking abortions and those reasons may not be of significance to an outsider but if for any reason a woman herself feels she is unable to cope with the pregnancy and will be unable to cope with a child, the final decision should lie in her hands.
Bibliography:
1986: The New Politics of Abortion, Joni Lovenduski & Joyce Outshoorn, London.
2000: Green Paper on Abortion, Stationery Office Publishers: Dublin.
1992: The Abortion Papers Ireland, Ailbhe Smyth: Dublin.