DAVID McDONAGH,
Sir, - Liz McManus (February 8th) maintains that the Labour Party has a clear alternative to the proposed Government amendment to the Constitution on abortion. She advocates voting No to the Government proposal and legislation in line with the X case.
In her letter she doesn't elaborate any further on the legislation issue. In the interests of completeness, perhaps we should remind ourselves as to what exactly the Labour Party means by "legislation in line with the X case".
This matter was debated at the annual Labour conference last September and the following motion was passed: "Conference calls on the party to reject a further divisive referendum on the issue of abortion and to support women's right to choose. Conference further asks that women should be able to exercise this right in their own country."
Albeit that this motion was not favoured by the upper echelons of the Labour Party and that some rank and file members were deeply unhappy with its extreme nature, it was passed and is now official party policy. The Labour Party's opposition to the amendment must be seen in the context of its official liberal policy on abortion.
Medical practice in Ireland has always catered for the two patients in pregnancy, both mother and child. The Government's referendum proposal aims to safeguard existing medical practice. In The Irish Times ( October 6th, 2001) in an article entitled "Abortion proposals are in the right direction", Dr Peter McKenna, Master of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin said he would be voting in favour of the referendum. One of his reasons he gave was "to know with certainty that recognised medical practice is legal is a considerable comfort".
If this referendum is not passed there is no guarantee that existing medical practice will be safeguarded. Existing medical practice has served Ireland well. A Yes vote would seem to go a long way towards ensuring that existing medical practice will remain as it is and continue to serve us well in future years. The alternative will likely be some a mixture of liberal abortion law such as that being proposed by the Labour Party. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID McDONAGH,
Hume Street,
Dublin 2.
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Sir, - The comments by Minister Frank Fahey that women are pretending to be suicidal so that they can have abortions, was a shabby attempt to scare the electorate into voting Yes in the forthcoming referendum. It shows nothing but contempt for women and for the democratic process.
The fact that in the Dáil debate on February 13th the Taoiseach conspicuously failed to dissociate himself from these comments along with the behaviour of some Fianna Fáil TDs lays bare the cynical exercise that this Government is engaged in.
Of course, this experience is nothing new. Since the foundation of this State the solution to unplanned pregnancies has been to either lock women away in institutions, where many of them were abused and exploited, give their children away or send them into exile.
In modern Ireland, the solution to unplanned pregnancies is to make criminals out of women who have abortions and to punish those who want to keep their babies by ensuring that they live lives of poverty and social exclusion. I feel ashamed to be Irish for the first time in my life. - Yours, etc.,
NOREEN BYRNE,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
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Sir, - As someone interested in the current abortion debate, I am surprised by the lack of clarity among some of the vote No proponents. Many of those who support this position have accused the Government of failing to trust women, yet they themselves do not trust our doctors to maintain the high standard of excellent medical care which has seen Ireland rank among the countries giving the best attention to pregnant women over the past number of years.
They insist that a Yes vote means that you do not care about women's health, yet they ignore the evidence from abroad which suggests that abortion is harmful for women, both psychologically and physically.
They insist that the Government's proposal is a backward step, yet the experience of countries like Britain and the US would suggest that the truly regressive step would be to introduce abortion to Ireland and watch as the numbers of Irish abortions rise as inevitably as they have elsewhere.
At this stage of the debate I am convinced that the Government's proposal makes sense, protecting women from the health risk that is abortion, while at the same time ensuring that they receive all of the medical care that they need. I will be voting Yes. - Yours, etc.,
CHRISTINE SHECKLETON,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
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Sir, - The Taoiseach is concerned that if the forthcoming abortion referendum produces a No result that the Government may have to legislate for the X case. Shouldn't the last referendum have led to such legislation as it was held as a result of the Supreme Court ruling on the X case? Or was that another referendum that didn't produce the desired result? - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL DOLAN,
Clonmel,
Co Tipperary.