Dear Editor, The call for a referendum, presumably to legislate in favour of abortion and to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, is based on a flaw. The Republic of Ireland despite its constitutional provisions of equality between the unborn and (with due regard) the mother, does in fact permit abortion.
Abortion is permitted within the State under the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Act 2013. Whilst the State’s legislation is not as permissive as that in Great Britain, not every state in the Council of Europe is as permissive as Great Britain.
Just as the marriage referendum was not necessary, an abortion referendum is not needed. The state permits abortion on the following grounds: risk of loss of life from physical illness, risk of loss of life from physical illness in an emergency and risk of loss of life from suicide.
The Irish statute permits information about abortion in other members states of the EU to be freely available in the Republic and it also does not criminalise a woman who has an abortion say in Great Britain for a ground not covered by the State’s law, but permitted in that state.
The people have spoken through the last General Election whereby the only party to promise an abortion referendum, Labour, was decimated at the polls.
Ireland should persevere with the Eighth Amendment as it marks the State as the only state that formally protects the rights of its citizens from conception to death. The State should resist the promotion of abortion by the so called UN Human Rights Commission; does Ireland really need to have its human rights record corrected by a body headed by Saudi Arabia?
Yours etc.,
Christopher Keeffe,
West Harrow, UK.