The creator of Father Ted has labelled Irish politicians cowards for failing to reform abortion laws.
Graham Linehan and Helen, his wife, revealed yesterday that they terminated a wanted pregnancy in 2004 after discovering that their 11-week-old baby would not survive outside the womb.
The Labour party has promised to hold a vote on abortion if it is re-elected into government. The vote would be on whether to repeal the eighth amendment, which gives equal rights in the constitution to the mother and her unborn child.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the equality minister and Labour party TD, has previously said the referendum should take place at the end of the next government because pro-choice campaigners were “nowhere near” winning it.
“Can I just say how disgusting it is that anyone would say ‘wait 5 years’ when people [in support groups] like Termination for Medical Reasons have experiences like they have,” Mr Linehan said.
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“How many more stories will happen in those five years? It’s disgusting.
“I don’t think this is going to be a top-down revolution. This is going to come from the people.
“The politicians in southern Ireland are cowards, the ones in Northern Ireland seem to be fanatics. We can’t rely on politicians.”
The Black Books and The IT Crowd creator was speaking at the launch of Chains, a pro-choice campaign film in Belfast yesterday. Mr Linehan produced the film, having experienced the need for a termination for medical reasons in England in 2004.
Eleven weeks into a wanted pregnancy, Mr Linehan and his wife discovered the foetus had a condition called acrania, which meant that its skull was not fully formed. They were advised to terminate the pregnancy immediately, as the baby may have survived gestation but would not survive delivery.
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Several years later they moved to Ireland where they realised that Helen would not have been allowed to have an abortion, even in the case of a fatal foetal abnormality. Like many Irish women who discover that a pregnancy is not viable, she would have been forced to carry the baby to term, knowing that it would not survive, or arrange to travel for a termination.
“I just cannot imagine what we would have done, had we been living here. It sounds so bizarre and insane, it feels like a bad dream listening to the stories I’ve heard,” Ms Linehan said.
“To have to get on a plane, to have no support in your own country just really doesn’t sound right.”
Between 10 and 12 women a day travel from Ireland to the UK to access safe abortions.
The Linehans said they shared their story to help the campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment and for the extension of the UK’s 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland.
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Unlike the rest of the UK, abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland, except where there is a serious risk to a woman’s mental or physical health. Abortion under any other circumstance is illegal and punishable by a life sentence.
A spokesman for the Labour party defended its position and said it was the only political party pushing for a referendum on the Eighth Amendment.
“In our upcoming manifesto for the general election we will be making a commitment to repeal the Eighth Amendment. If anyone is going to get a referendum on this, it is us,” he said.
Colm O’Gorman, the executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland, said politicians could no longer avoid the issue of abortion.
“The issue at heart here is a failure of political leadership. It’s time for politicians north and south to step up, to do their damn jobs and to show some leadership,” Mr O’Gorman said.
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“To politicians who say the time isn’t right: the time is beyond right, the time was always right. It is profoundly wrong not to give people a say on the Eighth Amendment.”