Sir, – I refer to the article on abortion (“Archbishops are absolutely wrong about conscience”, Opinion Analysis, December 27th) by philosopher Desmond M Clarke, my ex-colleague from UCC. He writes that, “Most other western democracies provide for abortion in certain circumstances. It seems at least rash to conclude that the legislators in Spain, France, Denmark, Germany, Norway, etc, all lack the ethical insights to which we exclusively have access”.
I looked up the statistics in Johnston’s Archive on the percentage of pregnancies aborted in the countries quoted by Prof Clarke.
The latest figures I could find are: Spain 18.2 per cent (2008), France 21.7 per cent (2007), Denmark 18.8 per cent (2006), Germany 14.3 per cent (2008) and Norway 20.5 per cent (2011). The figure for our neighbour England is 20.8 per cent (2010) and the figure quoted for Irish abortions is 7.3 per cent (2006).
National abortion rates of around 20 per cent are common in Europe in countries where contraception and sex education are freely available. It is scarcely backward or narrow-minded to claim that these figures are far too high and they are certainly a poor advertisement for “ethical insights” into legislation on abortion. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Desmond M Clarke is right to highlight the “two-edged sword” nature of the freedom of conscience. Thomas Aquinas captured the complexity of the nature of freedom of conscience when he argued that “anyone upon whom the ecclesiastical authority, in ignorance of true facts, imposes a demand that offends against his clear conscience, should perish in excommunication rather than violate his conscience”. I would argue that any male celibate cleric, be he pope, cardinal or priest, is ignorant of what goes on in the mind and life of a pregnant woman. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Does anyone seriously believe that legalised abortion – even in the most limited circumstances – can be introduced here without recourse to yet another divisive referendum?
If they do, they’re living in cloud cuckoo land.There’s no way there’s going to be unanimous cross-party consensus on the need to enact legislation that would permit abortion in this State; it’s too much of an emotive issue for mere parliamentarians to vote on. A rejuvenated Fianna Fáil (rumours of that party’s demise have been greatly exaggerated) will be bound to oppose any proposed legislation the Fine Gael/Labour administration brings forward. This strategy – an albeit cynical one (that’s politics) – will go down well with the “pro-life” element within the Fine Gael parliamentary party.The members of this group will tell Enda – in no uncertain terms – that they would rather lose the party whip than vote in favour of their own Government’s Bill. The Taoiseach will accede to the demands of the FG recalcitrants (some of them in very senior positions) for a free vote on the matter. Labour will protest, but to no avail – the Government will collapse and another bitter referendum on the intractable issue of abortion will ensue.
Well, that’s the way I see it. – Yours, etc,