Mary Kenny
The Fianna Fáil senator Ned O’Sullivan told The Times newspaper recently – the Irish edition of the London paper – that he had changed his mind about abortion after “having had the honour” of serving on the Oireachtas committing considering the Eighth Amendment.
Previously, he said, he had been pro-life. Now he wanted a new ‘pro-women’ law. “I have had a gradual realisation that abortion is a matter for a woman’s health and wellbeing,” he said.
Well, I think we should all be respectful of one another’s sincerely held views, and we should always listen to what others have to say, and reflect on it. But yet I do not believe that Senator O’Sullivan’s statement is accurate on one central point: 99% of abortions have nothing to do with health care.
Most abortions, as most abortion providers will admit when speaking honestly, are basically retrospective contraception. A pregnancy has been risked and is now not wanted. This is not a health issue: it is a decision about lifestyle.
In a very few unusual cases, the termination of a pregnancy may be considered genuinely on health grounds. In such cases, tragically, the mother is often moribund: for example, in an advanced stage of cancer. Though it might be mentioned that there are heroic mothers who refuse an abortion in this situation.
‘Wellbeing’ is something else, and there is no agreed definition of what it means. It can be anything from a euphoric high after winning the Lotto to enjoying the companionship of a dog. But it’s not something that can be delivered by a health service, or the state – though welfare may be.
Pro-life people should be just as concerned for the health and welfare of women and mothers as anyone else. And I think most pro-life people are, as the ‘Love Both’ logo makes clear.
Management
The management of fertility is important for women’s health, for sure. Many and frequent pregnancies can put a woman’s health in jeopardy, and being pro-life should not mean that multiparous births are regarded as compulsory (a point Pope Francis made when he said, slightly jokingly, that there was no need to “breed like rabbits”).
The health of women and mothers should indeed be a priority in any jurisdiction, and Ned O’Sullivan is right to underline how important that health issue is. But he should also face the fact that, statistically, most abortion practice is not undertaken for health reasons at all.
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Please use the Post Office at Christmas. Please! If they’re not used, they disappear. The pleasant suburb of Donnybrook in Dublin has so much to offer – lovely food shops, an excellent bookshop ‘Hampton Books’ – but no Post Office any more. Use it or lose it!
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Kindness at Christmas
I was really keen to see the lovely Christmas ballet The Nutcracker – music by Tchaikovsky – and so, earlier this month, I turned up at the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin, where it was being streamed from the Royal Opera House in London.
I arrived at the Smithfield location only to be told that the performance was fully booked out, and there were no seats available. Then a young woman appeared at my side saying: “I have a spare ticket – take it!”
Thrilled, I naturally said that I’d pay for it, but she said no, she wouldn’t accept any money – it had been given to her anyway.
All I know about her is that her name is Grainne, and she had performed a graceful random act of kindness, in itself as memorable as the exquisite Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy herself.