It has divided this country for decades, but at last the people of Ireland are to be given a real opportunity to vote on what is widely regarded as the most contentious clause in the constitution.
Successive governments have shied away from grasping the thorny issue of the Eighth Amendment, which bans abortion in all but the most restricted circumstances, so the cabinet must be commended for committing to hold a referendum this year. This newspaper believes that it is in the best interests of the country that the Eighth Amendment is repealed and that parliament implements the findings of the Oireachtas committee, which recommended that abortion be allowed up to 12 weeks without restriction.
The taoiseach was correct when he said in his landmark speech on Monday evening that we cannot continue to export our problems and import our solutions. The days of looking the other way, of accepting “an Irish solution to an Irish problem”, are over. The days of ignoring the nine women a day who are obliged to travel from their home country to Britain for terminations are over.
It is also time to end the delusion that the Eighth Amendment has stopped abortion in Ireland, when the use of abortion pills here, often taken without medical supervision, proves otherwise.
The treatment of women with fatal foetal abnormalities, in particular, is degrading and inhuman and not commensurate with the standards expected of any republic. On Monday, when announcing his support for removing the Eighth Amendment from the constitution, Leo Varadkar referenced two events in particular that influenced his decision: the first was what he described as the “heartbreaking case of a woman who was clinically dead but on life support while the baby she was carrying remained alive for a time”; and the second was the case of Miss Y, an asylum seeker who was turned back from an English port when she sought to travel there for a termination and subsequently became distraught, went on hunger strike and became suicidal.
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Successive opinion polls have indicated that there is a public recognition that the status quo must change. Until recent months it appeared that the government would take a narrow path towards liberalising the laws by introducing abortion in circumstances of rape, incest and fatal foetal conditions. A slew of evidence presented to the citizens’ assembly last year and subsequently to the Oireachtas committee underlined difficulties in legislating for this regime. It also showed that such an arrangement would not tackle the reality of women buying abortion pills online and so ministers agreed the proposal to “repeal and replace”.
People will naturally have concerns about repealing the Eighth Amendment. It is a deeply sensitive issue and many voters hold nuanced views. With the “repeal and replace” option, whereby the government may introduce legislation in accordance with the report of the Oireachtas committee allowing for abortion on request up to 12 weeks, assurances must be provided that the procedure will be carefully regulated; or, as the taoiseach stated, that abortion will be “safe, legal and rare”.
Nobody regards abortion as an easy choice, but for women with a crisis pregnancy who are distressed, scared and isolated it is often their only, lonely choice. As the government gears up for the coming campaign, another positive step would be to allocate more resources for comprehensive sex education for young people, which would contribute hugely to ensuring that crisis pregnancies become increasingly rare.
It’s been a long journey to this referendum but now, 35 years after the insertion of article 40.3.3 into Bunreacht na hÉireann, there is an opportunity to bring an end to what the taoiseach described as “the saddest and loneliest journey” made by thousands of our citizens.