Breda O'Brien
Fianna Fáil leader Michael Martin The View
It is easy to become despondent given that our political system is contemplating removing rights for the vulnerable and helpless from our Constitution.
A clause that protects both mother and baby is now somehow re-classified as discriminatory in a way that is reminiscent of Orwell’s dark masterpiece, Animal Farm, where Squealer can “turn black into white”. And where all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Or perhaps it might remind us of his other great work, Nineteen Eighty-Four, where he created the term “unperson”, which originally meant a person vaporised and expunged from history, perhaps for thoughtcrime. Every scrap of evidence that they ever existed is destroyed.
With no sense of irony, one of the arguments used to take rights from the unborn is that they are not persons. They are human, but not deserving of human rights. Why not just go with “unperson” and be done with it?
Unreasonable
Orwell also hated clichés, to an almost unreasonable degree. One wonders what he might make of the contemporary practice of using the expression ‘going on a journey’ to explain a radical change of mind?
We have seen politicians allegedly ‘going on a journey’ and arriving at a place where they can reconcile themselves to ending the lives of humans at the earliest stage, and even to a place where they actively promote the alleged ‘right’ to do so.
‘Journey’ is a great modern cliché. It seems to no longer occur to people that just like there can be disastrously wrong choices which should not be encouraged, journeys can also end up at the wrong destination.
No-one is doubting any politician’s sincerity. However, it is perfectly acceptable to question their judgement.
For example, Micheál Martin has an exemplar of best practice in situations where a couple or mother has decided to continue with a pregnancy where the baby has a very poor prognosis in the Cork University Maternity Hospital, right in his own constituency.
A wraparound service ensues, and as a result, a small-scale research study found that parents report finding meaning in what is perhaps the greatest sorrow of their lives.
These parents move from a feeling that it is impossible to continue with the pregnancy, to a fierce protectiveness towards the child, who so often is seen by outsiders as just a tragedy, and not someone who deserves to live every moment of the short span that they have.
In short, although devastated and heartbroken, they find meaning in the seemingly meaninglessness by realising that they still have a vital role as a parent to their child.
Parents who choose to continue to receive little acknowledgement and, sometimes, even less in terms of practical support. Yet politicians have spoken eloquently of how impressive they found the mothers who chose to end their pregnancies.
Out of simple decency, one would have thought that they would have met with mothers who continue on even though the prevailing culture assumes that they will abort. Simon Harris, among others, has yet to do so. And yet people who are pro-life are allegedly the ones who have closed minds?
It is important to remember that there is always good news. For example, in America, where abortion has been legal for nearly four and a half decades, young people are increasingly anti-abortion. They do not identify with the term pro-life, but they are increasingly anti-abortion and support restrictions.
(One wonders whether their dislike of the term pro-life has stemmed from the media, which for decades has portrayed pro-lifers as dour, killjoy, absolutist religious fanatics?)
Awareness
Charles Camosy has explored in Crux the unease that younger Americans express regarding abortion and the growing awareness that opposition to abortion fits perfectly with concern for the poor, care for the environment and opposition to the death penalty.
In August 2016, Camosy wrote of a generation who “have been raised with prenatal pictures of themselves on the fridge, and know first-hand that broad access to abortion choice does not make one free”.
He points out that slightly more young people are against abortion than favour it – 53% to 47%.
Even more striking is the difference between age groups. According to the National Journal, while only 44% of those 50 and older support a ban on abortion at 20 weeks, the ban is supported by 52% of those ages 18-29.
Here in Ireland, we have a low, but still tragic abortion rate. In the US, where according to the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, one in four women will have an abortion by age 45, young people are increasingly in favour of finding a better way.
Given that every political party in Ireland is chasing the young vote, it would be ironic indeed if the journeys our politicians are taking are more likely to alienate young people in the long term.