The chairman of the Pro-Life Campaign, Dr Joe McCarroll, has said a 62 per cent vote in favour of the amendment in the forthcoming referendum on abortion would make a "clear statement" on the issue.
Addressing a meeting in Galway hosted by Galway For Life, Dr McCarroll said he would be happy with 51 per cent in favour, but would like to see a bit more than that. "I want you to wear out your soles to ensure this gets through," he told the meeting attended by an estimated 100 people.
Dr McCarroll - who said his next campaign after the referendum would be to ensure that there is statutory protection for the unborn against embryonic research - said that abortion was currently legal in Ireland and it was only the medical profession that had ruled against it.
However, even the Medical Council could no longer be totally relied upon, he said, referring to last year's attempt to liberalise the council's ethical guidelines.
If the current situation was to remain, it would only take one doctor with an ideological chip on his shoulder to carry through a test case, and thereby "cross the shame line" and "breach the defence", Dr McCarroll said. It was an action by a doctor in Britain, who had reported himself to the police, that had led to wide-ranging laws allowing the practice there, he added.
Dr McCarroll said the amendment would provide a very good barrier against "anyone smuggling in abortion and describing it as medical treatment". It was not true that it effectively abandoned the unborn before implantation, he said. It would not go so far as to legalise the morning-after pill.
The Bill made a legal definition of abortion, and any doctor who ignored it could face 12 years behind bars, he said. Doctors would have to keep written records in relation to treatment of pregnant women at risk in any of the approved centres, and the paper trails would be there. The present situation was one of instability, he said.
Dr McCarroll recalled the long campaign by anti-abortion groups since 1983, and said that the Supreme Court had been flawed in its 1992 X case judgment. An IMS poll carried out by the Pro-Life Campaign had showed that the majority of people wanted another referendum to reverse the decision, and he outlined the postcard campaign to lobby politicians on the issue.
Someone had once described the Pro-Life group as comparable to the Irish Farmers' Association in terms of influence, he said.
The consultation involving the All-Party Oireachtas Committee had been unique in terms of its wide-ranging nature. The proposed amendment was not "anti-woman" and would "put the unborn on the social radar screen" so that women with an unexpected pregnancy could be supported.
