By Catherine Brown
DUBLIN — "The main reason for this referendum is because the government does not accept that suicidal tendency is a reason for abortion", explained the then Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds. On November 26, not only was Reynolds' "Pro-life Referendum" rejected, but his Fianna Fail Party also failed to win a majority in the national elections held the same day.
In 1983 an eighth amendment to the Irish constitution was carried, by a two to one majority, banning abortion totally. It was the start of a decade of attacks on women's reproductive rights. Legally, the amendment was interpreted to prevent any distribution or publication of information regarding abortion services in other countries. Earlier this year the High Court tried to prevent a 14-year-old rape victim from having an abortion in England.
Public outrage in Ireland and international embarrassment forced Reynolds' coalition government to fund the young woman's successful appeal to the Supreme Court. The abortion was permitted on the basis that the young woman was suicidal.
The "X" case, as it became known, saw thousands of women demonstrating in the streets of Dublin. This decision dealt a fatal blow to the absolute ban on abortion, and one the conservative forces wanted to ensure was not generalised. So, instead of the coalition government enacting legislation to reflect the Supreme Court decision, it opted for a referendum, in the hope, of restricting the decision.
There were three separate referendums. The first two questions were on the rights to travel and information. The last, known as "the substantive issue", called for a ban on abortion except in cases where a termination "is necessary to save the life, as distinction from the health of the mother [!] where there is an illness or disorder of the mother giving rise to a real and substantive risk to her life, not being a risk of self-destruction."
The Council for the Status of Women (an umbrella body for 100 groups) has called the referendum's wording "outrageous and an insult". The Irish Council for Civil Liberties called it "an assault on the bodily integrity of women".
The health minister (a doctor) stated on television and radio he was not concerned with protecting the "health" of Irish women but, rather, their lives, and then, only in special circumstances.
The main opposition parties, the trades union council, women's groups and the fundamentalist right opposed the third referendum question but for different reasons. If it was passed, it would be a setback from the ruling on the X case, where the danger of suicide was accepted as justification for an abortion. Anti-abortionists opposed it, on the basis that it allowed limited abortion and hence "opened the floodgates". The Catholic bishops' statement called for a "no" vote to travel and information rights but, in regard to the third part, stated either a "yes" or a "no" vote was morally justifiable " in so far as each is intended to reflect an abhorrence of abortion." Days later the Catholic Bishop of Dublin stated he would be voting "no" on all three questions.
However since the X case, public opinion in Ireland had shifted. All the polls up to November 26 indicated majority support for travel and information rights. This reflected a change in Irish society that alarmed conservatives, as it was in defiance of the Catholic Church's clear directives.
For the conservative fundamentalists it was not a single issue campaign. Issues such as sex education, contraceptives, divorce, gay and lesbian rights were all considered as part of the "abortion agenda". This lobby used abortion as the more emotive issue to head off any further liberalisation in Irish society.
In the lead-up to November 26, Youth Defence, an extreme right anti- abortion group alienated many by its fanatical tactics. Each Saturday morning, Youth Defence would handout colour leaflets featuring a foetus' head gripped by tweezers. The caption read "This baby's head was found in a plastic bag outside an abortion mill in Houston."
At pickets outside "soft" politicians' houses, up to 20 Youth Defence members would stand holding placards with pictures of dismembered limbs or aborted foetuses. Thousands of dollars worth of anti-abortion material has been received from the US group Operation Rescue by Youth Defence.
The referenda results indicate "there is still a minority that would oppose abortion under any circumstances, there's a similar sized minority supporting pro-choice and a great many in between who believe when a women's life or health is at risk that abortion should be available", explained Caroline McCamley, spokesperson for the Frontline a coalition of organisations provided services for women with crisis pregnancies.
"More and more people are realising interfering with rights to information and travel is a red herring in the whole abortion debate. Women don't have an abortion because they have the right to travel, or because they know where to have one. People are beginning to move forward, realising censorship and bans really don't help us deal with the issues involved", McCamley told Green Left Weekly.