The Pro-Life amendment to the Irish Constitution is under fierce attack.
Pro-abortion organizations, Women’s Centers, trade unions and media personalities are in full cry. Politicians from all parties are joining them in their demands that the amendment by scrapped, or that its enforce
The outcry arises from a case in which the Attorney-general took out an injunction to prevent a 14-year-old victim of statutory rape from having an abortion in England.
The girl’s pregnancy is said to be the result of molestation by the father of her friend. The man is said to have had sexual relations with her over a period of several months and the girls was pregnant for over two months. She did not tell her parents until the end of January 1992 when her mother noticed that she had missed a period.
England
The sequence of events since then has not been reported fully, but the parents apparently decided to take her to England for an abortion.
We have not been told how they found out where to go; details of such facilities are not published in Ireland. Therefore, it is likely the parents contacted a Women’s Information center or some other pro-abortion counseling service.
If this is the case, they seem to have been given some very strange advice.
After they had arranged for an abortion, they then went to the police, informed them of when and where their abortion appointment was to take place, and asked them if it would be acceptable for them to bring back a sample of fetal tissue from the aborted baby for use in a court action against the accused molester/rapist.
Duty bound, the police reported the matter to their superiors. Indeed, it was not necessary to do so in order to get an authoritative answer about the acceptability of fetal tissue in a court case.
Temporary injunction
When the matter was brought to the attention of the Attorney-General he sought and was granted a temporary injunction to prevent the abortion.
By this time the girl and her parents were already in London where the abortion was about to proceed. They returned to Ireland where a High Court hearing was scheduled to hear the request of the Attorney-General to have the injunction made permanent.
Despite the ruling by the Speaker of Dail Eireann (the Irish Parliament) and the Attorney- General that the matter was subjudice and should not be discussed, the media and the opposition politicians immediately proceeded to whip up a storm which raged on and on during the weekend of February 15.
On February 17 the High Court heard the case. The girl’s parents, with the help of the pro-abortion movement, opposed the injunction on four grounds:
• The Court had no jurisdiction in England where the abortion was to take place.
• The mother’s right-to-life would be endangered by continuing the pregnancy. (She might commit suicide).
• The mother’s liberty must be respected. (The constitution gives all citizens equal rights to liberty).
• Since EC (European Community) law enshrines the right to travel freely between member states, the injunction would be a contravention of that right.
The Court rejected all four arguments and made the injunction permanent.
Supersedes
In a long explanation of the reasons for his decision, the High Court judge stressed the fact that the Constitution gives an absolute right-to-life to the unborn which supersedes all other rights, except where there would be an immediate threat to the life of the mother.
The High Court ruling infuriated pro-abortionist organizations and the media. Backed by a number of politicians, they demanded that there be a new referendum to get rid of the pro-life amendment.
The outcry has been highly emotional and totally one-sided.
For example, the Gay Byrne morning radio talk show, broadcast on the Dublin-based Radio Telefis Eireann 1 (RTE 1) network, conducted an unofficial poll of listeners’ views.
In about one hour, the program claims to have received calls at a rate of 130 per minute, totaling almost 12,000 calls, of which almost two thirds supported the demand for a new referendum.
The Gay Byrne show caters to “liberal” opinion and its listenership can always be counted on to support “progressive” causes. Moreover, except for the Dublin area, most Irish homes do not have a telephone, so the majority of people are excluded from such a poll.
The whole case is the “ideal test case” for which the pro-abortion movement has been waiting nine years. The girl and her parents appear to have been used and exploited from the start. Why else would they have informed the authorities that they were arranging to go to England for an abortion? Why else would they have gone to the police with a question which by its very nature had to be referred to the law authorities for an answer?
New Prime Minister
The upheaval came just two days after Albert Reynolds, the new Prime Minister had taken office as a result of a leadership change in the majority party of the coalition government. He re-shuffled his Cabinet and installed a new speaker four the country’s parliament.
On the same day as the abortion case hit the headlines, the new Health Minister had announced his intention to bring in legislation to eliminate genetic defects in the population.
Peter Hopkins is The Interim’s Irish correspondent.
