Renata Steffens
I was downcast last week to see a vote in the Dáil supporting a wider abortion regime.
Our mainstream media have tended to avoid the abortion issue, a kind of ‘don’t spook the horses’ approach, but it did get an airing last week. Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) gave the issue detailed coverage, and the discussion was reasonably well balanced, with a few speakers on both sides of the argument. Presenter Kieran Cuddihy showed he was aware of the figures of women not returning after the first consultation, which didn’t necessarily show how many babies’ lives had been saved, but he accepted that some had lived as a result – “absolutely there would be children alive today”.
One woman said it would be worth it if any babies, however small the number, had survived as a result. She raised an issue we don’t hear about very often – the fear of potential grandparents that their grandchildren may have been aborted. Another pro-life contributor was horrified at the mounting death toll, estimating, conservatively I think, that after 10 more years the total death toll could be 100,000, and he wondered why the Government wasn’t talking about it or doing something about it.
Kieran Cuddihy said “we’re talking about it now”, but in fact the current talking is mostly about how to widen the grounds and thus, in all likelihood, increasing the figures. A pro-choice researcher said she hadn’t come across women who changed their minds, or cases of abortion regret or coercive abortion – even though some of these latter cases have come to court! With another pro-choice advocate, Kieran Cuddihy pointed out how the pro-life side in the repeal referendum had warned about the grounds for abortion being widened, “the slippery slope”.
He said their concerns were dismissed … “but here we are”. Later he said abortion was “not a for-profit industry”, which I thought was highly questionable, considering the millions spent on it in Ireland. I wondered if the three-day wait is abandoned, will the doctor’s fee for abortion be reduced? I was impressed by the contribution of Eilís Mulroy, who was very strong on the real-life implications – babies alive, at home, now, because of the three-day wait.
On the Tonight Show (Virgin Media One, Wednesday) a rare thing happened – a presenter asked tough questions of the pro-choice side. They’re not used to it. Shane Coleman, one of our best old-school journalists, was discussing the dropping of the three-day wait by a vote that night in the Dáil. He put it to the Sinn Féin representative, Rose Conway-Walsh TD, that other European countries had waiting periods.
He made the democratic point that people understood when voting for repeal that there would be this safeguard. I thought her answers were unconvincing – she repeated, several times, the old mantra – “trust women and their clinicians”, an approach foreign to other areas of law. When she said that the review (which suggested dropping the waiting period) was also envisaged when people voted, he suggested that was “very much in the small print”.
Fianna Fáil TD Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere, had voted against removing the safeguard, but his points were mainly political. Journalist Alison O’Connor felt strongly it was a matter of “reproductive rights” (euphemism alert!), but as people voted for repeal on the understanding that the three-day wait safeguard would be in place, she felt that this change could shake people’s trust in politics.
On The Week in Politics (RTÉ One, Sunday), Sinn Féin spokesperson Sorcha Clarke TD made the usual points against the three-day wait. She referenced abusive partners, but not, curiously, in the context of women being coerced into abortions. Where’s the compassion for those women? Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD defended the three-day wait forcefully, drawing attention to court cases involving those coerced abortions and medical cases involving incorrect medical diagnoses that led to the abortion of healthy babies.
He drew attention to the children playing at home in their gardens on that sunny Sunday, alive because their mothers availed of the wait and didn’t return for their second appointment and spoke of the “living individual human being” for whom the change would be “catastrophic”. Also in the studio, Fine Gael’s Neale Richmond TD was also against the three-day wait, while an impassioned and impressive pro-life contribution from Independent TD Carol Nolan was played from the Dáil debate.
I thought Áine Lawlor was a fair interviewer, challenging both sides.
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Pick of the Week
Film: Evan Almighty
RTÉ One, Saturday, June 27, 1.45pm
God recruits a politician to build an ark and save the world’s animals from an impending cataclysm. Comedy sequel to Bruce Almighty, starring Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman.
Called
EWTN, Sunday, June 28, 8pm
A priest’s visit to a family home is the setting for this powerful dramatisation of the priesthood’s power to communicate God’s grace. See how he helps them resolve the issues that they’re facing and find joy in Christ.
Fíorscéal
TG 4, Thursday, July 2, 10.30pm
Sweden has long been seen as the model welfare state, praised for its progressive, tolerant and inclusive values. But it’s also one of the deadliest countries in Europe for gang violence.