The compassion of the Irish people for the child who was recently raped and brutalised, and who later sought a termination of her unwanted pregnancy, is evident in the findings of the latest Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll. Almost two-thirds of those questioned took the view that the High Court decision allowing the girl to travel abroad for an abortion was the correct one, with only 26 per cent disagreeing. The findings demonstrate, as few other things might, the evolution in public thought on this highly contentious issue since the first anti-abortion referendum was passed in 1983. In this society, few people are for abortion; the vast majority is pro-life. But the X case of 1992, along with the latest C case, have demonstrated that hard, individual cases tend to dispel a climate of moral absolutism. Those court decisions have focussed attention on the failure of successive governments, and of the Irish medical profession, to respond to changed legal circumstances. But they also reflect the mass doublethink that can exist when religiously-inspired groups campaign aggressively in the name of moral absolutism. As a society, we have been reluctant to assert that there can, and will be, circumstances in which some individuals may have to choose abortion as the least of a number of evils. But that situation is changing.
The public now appears willing to sanction the provision of abortions in this country, rather than depend on the constitutional escape hatch of 1994, through which its citizens flee to an adjoining jurisdiction for treatments not provided at home. The monster of legalisms, built upon a foundation of hypocrisy and double-think, has been rejected because of the manner in which the weakest and most vulnerable suffered.
In this new situation, 77 per cent of the electorate has taken the view that abortion facilities should be provided in Ireland to deal with terminations in certain circumstances. These situations range from the ultra-liberal position of "for those who need it" (28 per cent); to a risk to the mother's health (14 per cent) ; to a risk to the life of the mother (35 per cent). Only 18 per cent were opposed to abortion in all circumstances, with 6 per cent offering no opinion. At the same time, 55 per cent of those questioned believed the Irish medical profession should provide facilities for such procedures, with 36 per cent disagreeing. The Government's commitment to deal with the substantive issue by way of a referendum and accompanying legislation has been given emphatic support by the poll. Almost exactly half of those surveyed favoured a legislative approach, where voters would be asked to approve of a Bill in advance through a referendum. Some 23 per cent favoured legislating in accordance with existing court judgments and 16 per cent favoured the removal of the 1983 anti-abortion wording from the Constitution. The cautious timetable signalled by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, involving the production of a Green Paper; its referral to an all-party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, and eventual Government action sometime after 1999, might now be usefully revised.