Here is some good news for Ruair∅ Quinn at a moment when the Labour Party leader could probably use a bit of cheering up. I shall be returning to the fold at the general election, after an absence of some years, and giving Labour my number one. From what I hear, a lot of women (admittedly not a wholly representative sample) are already thinking along the same lines.
At the risk of being branded a zealot (at my age!) I shall be doing so because Labour is the only major party in this state which has had the courage to face up to the reality of abortion in Ireland today.
At conference last weekend, delegates passed a motion supporting a woman's right to choose and asking that "women should be allowed to exercise this right in their own country". A more cautious amendment, proposed by the party's national executive, called on the government to introduce legislation to implement the Supreme Court judgment in the X Case and rejected the need for a referendum.
This amendment was rejected by one vote (no figures were given by the chairman), after which the original motion was carried by a show of hands. This decision has its roots in a conference of the party's national women's council last November. It's an intriguing story, not least because it shows how women discuss such difficult issues when there are no men present.
The executive committee of the council had drafted a motion almost identical to the amendment put forward by the platform at last weekend's conference, calling on the government to implement the Supreme Court decision of 1992.
One of the speakers at this conference was Liz MacManus, the party's spokeswoman on Health. She referred to her experience as a member of the Oireachtas All-Party Committee on the Constitution and lamented that the voices of women who had personal experience of abortion had been entirely absent from the committee's hearings.
When she finished speaking, a woman rose and told the conference, hesitantly, about her own abortion. A second woman followed. Then a social worker spoke about a case she had been dealing with: a teenage girl pregnant by her boyfriend and living with relatives. She had no money to travel to England and had been told that she would not be able to continue living at home if she had the baby.
There followed a debate, at the end of which the delegates rejected their executive's proposal, and asked it to prepare a motion for the Labour Party's annual conference which reflected the discussion that had taken place.
Even last Friday night nobody seems to have expected the national women's council motion to succeed. It was accepted that the party hierarchy wanted the whole issue out of the way before Ruair∅ Quinn's speech and that the platform's amendment would be carried. That didn't happen. The received political wisdom, even among some of its own women TDs, is that this is a disaster for Labour.
There is another scenario.
There are tens of thousands of women out there who have made the lonely journey to Britain. The voices of these women will be absent from any debate because they do not feel able to speak publicly. In the secrecy of the ballot box - in the referendum itself and in the general election - they will have an opportunity to express their views.
This is not, of course, an issue which concerns only women. Many men have shared in the trauma of an unwanted pregnancy as husbands, boyfriends, fathers. How often have we heard "I don't support abortion but if it were my daughter . . ."? For the Labour Party the forthcoming referendum offers an opportunity, if properly handled, to explain and defend its policy. For that to succeed the leadership will have to campaign with courage and conviction. Ruair∅ Quinn has made a good start by coming out against the referendum. He has exposed the lie, so assiduously promoted by the Progressive Democrats, that a consensus is possible.
Labour needs to convince the don't-knows that this is not just an issue of gender but of social equality. Bertie Ahern has made the point that the right to travel to Britain will be protected. But that right is not equally accessible to all. No crisis pregnancy is easy for the woman involved. The middle-class student has to face an agonising decision, but at least money is not likely to be a major problem. For the working-class teenager, the task of raising the £400 or £500 needed to have an abortion in Britain is a major part of the crisis.
It would be churlish not to note that the tone of Bertie Ahern's presentation of the referendum was genuinely conciliatory and that there are elements in his proposals (e.g., the funding of a crisis pregnancy agency) which are welcome.
But the harsh reality is that the wording of the amendment rolls back the Supreme Court judgment of 1992. It takes no account of such problems as foetal abnormality, pregnancy as a result of rape or incest, let alone of the other more mundane - but always personally difficult - reasons why increasing numbers of Irish women will continue to fly to Britain each weekend.
The last time I wrote on this issue a number of women wrote to me. I was on sick leave and I apologise for not replying. I appreciate the fact that they told me their stories and took the time to write.
mholland@irish-times.ie