RESISTANCE to the prospect, of another constitutional abortion referendum is consolidating across party lines despite expectations of an intensive anti abortion campaign in the run up to the election.
The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, yesterday firmly ruled out a new referendum on abortion, saying it would be "unhelpful" since the poll in 1983 is seen by many as the source of much of the current difficulty.
No attempt will be made in the lifetime of this Government to put the Supreme Court judgment in the X case on a legislative footing.
The former leader of the Progressive Democrats, Mr Des O'Malley, yesterday suggested the way forward was through all party agreement on post election legislation rather than by way of referendum. They should try to achieve a common legislative measure, he said.
However, in spite of the certainty that there will be no legislation dealing with the issue under the present coalition, the Labour TD, Mr Eamonn Walsh, said his party would oversee in the next administration, "carefully worked out legislation to prohibit abortion but allowing for any procedure necessary to save a pregnant, woman's life.
"It appears that the emergence of this story [concerning a woman who claimed to have had an abortion in Dublin] is turning this general election away from the real issue of Government," Mr Walsh said. Every "forward looking person" would have to think twice before voting for a "fundamentalist" Fianna Fail party that was eager to plunge the State into another futile abortion referendum he added.
His remarks followed a weekend comment by the Fianna Fail justice spokesman, Mr John O'Donoghue, that "the way forward now is to examine the circumstances under which a referendum can be put before the Irish people". However, his colleague and Fianna Fail's deputy leader, Ms Mary O'Rourke, sought to put the ball back in the Government's court, saying it had done nothing in spite of a commitment in the programme for government to "continue work on the complex ethical, legal and medical problems raised by the X case".
Following the apparent differences between the position of Mr O'Donoghue and the party leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, the issue is to be discussed by the Fianna Fail Front bench today and at tomorrow's parliamentary party meeting.
Meanwhile, in a blistering attack on politicians who had "cravenly" given in to the antiabortion lobby in the early 1980s, the Fine Gael back bench TD, Mr Alan Shatter, said political leaders such as Mr Ahern should resist the temptation in 1997 to go back to the past.