Fifteen organisations representing women's groups, political parties, doctors and lawyers joined forces yesterday at a rally for a No vote in the abortion referendum.
The groups, which include Abortion Reform, Cherish, Doctors for Choice, Lawyers Against the Amendment, Women's Aid and the Labour, Green and Sinn Féin parties, described the referendum as a retrograde step.
They oppose the proposal because it would eliminate suicide as a ground for abortion and they feel the Constitution is not a suitable vehicle for this legislation. They are also against inserting a criminal statute in the Constitution.
In a joint statement issued at a press conference in Dublin, they said while the status quo for the 10 years since the X case had not been satisfactory, the referendum provided "for a much worse scenario".
They pointed out that the X case judgment had not opened the floodgates in the past 10 years. "The protection afforded to girls and women by the X case judgment has only come into play once. That was in the C case in 1997 which involved a 13-year-old girl in the care of the Eastern Health Board who was pregnant as a result of rape and was suicidal.
"If this referendum is passed, the safety net provided by the X case judgment will be pulled away. Should a further C case arise, the life of the girl would be put at serious risk," they said.
"As signatories of this statement we are calling for a No vote because we are not prepared to take away what little protection there is for girls and women in a crisis pregnancy situation who are suicidal."
Among the other signatories to the statement were Alliance for a No Vote, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the Irish Family Planning Association, the National Women's Council of Ireland, Well Woman Centre, Cork Women's Political Association and Church of Ireland Archdeacon Gordon Linney.
The Green party MEP Ms Nuala Ahern said the referendum Bill had the potential to undermine patient confidentiality. She stated that paragraph 5 (2) would entitle a minister to make an order asking for facts and professional opinions that would result in the woman's identity being made public. Such a scenario, she claimed, would destroy a fundamental relationship between doctors and patients. She said the disclosure of deeply private and sensitive information could also be in breach of EU law.
"The removal of suicide as grounds for a termination and the lurking threat of public exposure is terrifying in its lack of compassion. As a psychologist I was always trained to take suicide threats very seriously. While it may be the case that suicide is rare in pregnant women, it does still occur, and should not be overlooked," she added.
Ms Sinéad Kennedy of Alliance for a No Vote said the proposals would make criminals of Irish women who faced crisis pregnancies.
Senator Mary Henry, chairperson of Cherish, said she didn't think the medical profession had looked carefully enough at parts of the proposed legislation which could be "very dangerous" for them. This included the section on examining doctors' medical records.
Ms Anne Marlborough of Abortion Reform said the referendum was misguided and unnecessary. The Government should have simply legislated within the X case, she said.
Ms Aoife Goodman of Lawyers Against the Amendment said people should vote No because they were being asked to use "a very questionable procedure" to change the Constitution. "The problem is we are trying to give legislation constitutional status. We've never done that before and it does not seem to be a good idea."