There is that same old Nice feeling about it now. With nine days to go to polling, the campaign to row-back on the X case in the abortion referendum is multi-directional, confusing and divisive for the majority of voters.
There is no agreement among the legal and medical experts about practically any aspect of the Protection of Human life in Pregnancy Bill. There are divisions between the leaders of the major Churches and the main political parties. There are splits in the Yes and No camps, as evidenced by the contradictory posters on the streets, that it would call for the wisdom of Solomon and his wife, Balkis, to decide which way to vote.
Yet, the Taoiseach would want the electorate to look simplistically at the referendum. A Yes vote would mean no to abortion; a No vote would mean yes to abortion on demand. Someone who should know better, Mr Brian Lenihan TD, chairman of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution - which laid the groundwork for the Government's proposals - adopted a more patronising attitude at the weekend. Wade through the swamp of rant and bombast, he advised, and present yourself with this elementary question. "Do you want abortion to be introduced in the Republic of Ireland? That's what it is really all about. It is a simple argument about whether or not you want to legislate for abortion here", he said.
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These exhortations to voters not to bother their heads with the details of the proposals are an insult to intelligence. The Supreme Court has decided that abortion is lawful in Ireland since the X case in 1992 where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother, including the risk of suicide. It is now intended to remove the risk of suicide and ban and criminalise abortion. The Government planned to take the so-called "Pro Life" look off its proposals by suggesting that the status of emergency contraception, like the morning-after pill, would be given certainty. But, the Catholic Church is in conflict with the Government' s interpretation now.
This referendum, more than any other in recent years, deals with life and death issues, particularly for women. There is no consensus about what it will mean. There are fundamental splits on the Yes side about where it will lead. The only guarantee is that it will end up in the courts.
There must be a clear debate about the impact and intent of the Twenty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution before the people cast their votes next week. The Taoiseach promulgated this referendum for almost five years. He pulled rank in the dying days of his government to enable it to proceed. He is not standing there as an independent arbiter on abortion. When the mask slipped in the Dáil last week, he proclaimed that he was passionately "pro-life" while Labour was the "pro-abortion" and "pro-choice" party. He is obliged now to publicly debate the complex issues involved with the Fine Gael leader, Mr Noonan. And the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, should do likewise with the Labour leader, Mr Quinn. There may be, superficially, a basis for the Minister for Health's call to Opposition parties to spell out their detailed legislative proposals on abortion. It must not be forgotten, however, that the Government carries the responsibility for this referendum and it took five years to produce its proposals.