A year or two from now, Micheál Martin may either be lionised as the Fianna Fail leader who took a courageous personal stand on abortion and the eighth amendment. Or, if the party is still languishing in opposition, he may be gone from the job.
The unambiguous clarity of Martin’s stance is not the stuff of which Fianna Fail has historically been made. Eamon de Valera laid the party’s foundations on two illusions that he sustained through his political career: that the unionists of the northeast could be coerced into a united Ireland, and that the restoration of the Irish language could be achieved by compulsion and threat.
Martin’s unequivocal support for the repeal of the eighth, and for legislation permitting abortion up to 12 weeks, dismayed many in Fianna Fail whose convictions are sincerely the opposite. It also panicked many party members who have lived a political lifetime talking guff and avoiding hard choices on issues ranging from Northern Ireland to housing, from reforming the gardai to fixing the health services. Fianna Fail rose to be the most powerful political force in the land — “the natural party of government” — not by boldly facing up to challenges but by managing to be all things to all men.
He has played down the idea of a revolt against his démarche, and just eight people turned up at Deputy Bobby Aylward’s protest meeting on Tuesday. But there is anger and disquiet down the line. It could serve as a focus for dissatisfaction with a leadership that has left the party lagging behind Fine Gael in the polls, and which is considered by some members to be aloof and lacking in killer instinct.
Martin also provided his detractors with political ammunition by making his announcement in the Dail, rather than disclosing his position on abortion to the parliamentary party the previous evening when it discussed the issue. The polls may not show it immediately, but Martin could gain points with some who hold a pro-choice position, who favour repeal of the eighth and then legislation. They will contrast his frankness with taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s continued evasiveness, which has left people puzzled as to his position.
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Support for repeal and legislation is at its strongest among younger voters. That is the age demographic with which Fianna Fail needs most to make up ground. Coming down decisively as Martin did may upset some traditional party supporters, but it could pay political dividends in the long term.
His language will resonate with women who believe they should have freedom of choice over what happens to their own bodies. The eighth amendment should be repealed, he argued, “because it has caused real harm to the quality of care available to pregnant women at critical moments; because it has not and cannot change the reality that abortion is a present and permanent part of Irish life, because it seeks to force women to carry a pregnancy to term when they have been the victim of rape or incest or when they have received the diagnosis of a fatal, foetal abnormality”.
It would be improper and unsustainable to imply that Martin’s stance on abortion is actuated by anything other than conviction; a resolve, having considered the arguments, to do what is right. He was, after all, the minister for health who took on the tobacco lobby, licensed trade, hospitality sector and retailers to introduce the workplace smoking ban in 2004, because he knew it was objectively justified by scientific and medical realities. Yet in a climate in which little enough is going Fianna Fail’s way, in which it seems unable to bridge the gap with Fine Gael, and in which the electorate appears unenthusiastic about its message, the party can only enhance its standing in the eyes of many younger voters by having its leader eschew cute-hoorism and square up to the realities that affect the lives of a great many Irish women.
There can hardly be anyone in Ireland today who does not know a female family member, friend or relative who, for one reason or another, has chosen to abort a pregnancy. Perhaps 50,000 have travelled to the UK since 2000, while others have gone to other countries, and still more have self-medicated with abortifacients ordered online.
Those who style themselves pro-life must know these women too and, no doubt with sincerity, will hold that they have made choices that are morally wrong; choices that, in each case, amount to the ending of an innocent human life. That conviction has long been supported by a broad political and social consensus, by the churches and the constitution, and has been enforced by the criminal law.
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It takes courage for a politician who is leading a conservative, traditionalist party to challenge this deeply ingrained orthodoxy. It will be clear soon enough whether that courage can be acknowledged and even built upon within Fianna Fail or whether it is to be rejected and penalised.