Mr John Bruton has come out against his party's position on the abortion referendum. The former Fine Gael leader was speaking at a press conference yesterday organised by lawyers supporting the amendment.
He explicitly challenged the proposal made by his party last week to legislate for the X case and provide for abortion in circumstances where the mother was suicidal.
"I do not agree with those who say that we should introduce positive legislation to facilitate the abortion of unborn children in Irish hospitals if the mother is believed by doctors to be suicidal because she is pregnant," he said.
He said there could be a real constitutional difficulty in doing so without further constitutional amendment, as the Constitution provides for the equal protection of the life of the mother and the unborn.
"To make a certain end to one life to prevent the possible end of another might be seen as not to be giving the equal protection to both lives that the Constitution explicitly requires," he said.
Mr Bruton said he had thought long and hard about making a statement and decided he would do so on Saturday, after an invitation by barrister, Mr Benedict Ó Floinn, who chaired yesterday's press conference. He pointed out that he had made a similar statement a month ago.
Mr Bruton also said that providing for abortion in the case of rape was also likely to require further constitutional amendment, because it would not recognise the equal rights to life of mother and child.
"A No vote could therefore lead logically to a succession of further referenda."
He said that the fundamental issue was whether the baby in the womb was a human being. If it was, it had human rights and they should be protected by the Constitution. "State involvement in human rights is justified precisely because the vindication of some human rights cannot just be left to people taking private legal actions or left in the hands of individuals."
Mr Bruton also challenged the Labour Party slogan, "Trust Women". He said that any law other than one based on a woman being free to choose abortion without any constraint at all, is one which could conceivably be attacked as not "trusting women". He argued that adoption had not been sufficiently advanced as an alternative to abortion.