Ireland begins abortion debate

Press, 11 February 1983, Page 6

Ireland begins abortion debate

NZPA-Reuter Dublin The Irish Parliament opened debate yesterday on a controversial anti-abortion bill seen as a set-back to the Government’s efforts to secularise the Constitution. The bill calls for a referendum on a proposed amendment to the Constitution banning abortion, which is already illegal under Irish law. It is seen as an embarrassment for the Prime Minister, Dr Garret Fitz Gerald, who has embarked on a so-called “Constitutional crusade” to rid the Constitution of sectarianism as a first step toward possible reunion with mainly Protestant Northern Ireland. The proposed amendment has been attacked by the three main Protestant Churches in the mainly

Catholic country as sectarian and an invasion of rights to privacy and individual choice. It has been attacked by doctors who say they fear that it would outlaw abortion in ethically acceptable cases such as cancer of the womb, and by lawyers who said that abortion was sufficiently covered by State law. Ninety-eight barristers (lawyers practising in the higher courts), a quarter of the national total, said that the amendment had reflected the beliefs of some members of one denomination rather than a general consensus of all citizens. Dr Fitzgerald, whose mother was a Protestant from Northern Ireland, has argued that the Irish Republic must make its Constitution and laws more attractive to the Protestant major-

ity in the North before any talk of reunification could take place. His deputy, the Labour

Party leader, Dick Spring, has said that he will vote against the amendment because he feels it will alienate members of different creeds. A leading Irish Methodist minister, Desmond Gilliland, believes that the abortion amendment is a serious setback to Dr Fitz Gerald’s crusade. “It will now be much more difficult to secularise this State,” he told the “Irish Times.” “It will create unnecessary barriers between North and South and great difficulties for anyone who wanted to create a union of minds.” The Parliamentary debate is expected to go on at least until next week. If the bill is passed, as widely expected, the referendum is likely to take place next month.