26.05.2004

Across the Irish Sea

The catholic church is once again making abortion a major political issue. Despite this attack on women's rights, Respect's sole MP, George Galloway, uses the press to highlight his opposition to abortion. Meanwhile the Socialist Workers Party opts for diplomatic silence. Anne Mc Shane examines the struggle in Ireland, where the church still holds sway over abortion rights

The catholic church hierarchy in England and Wales has just issued a 103-page moralising document called Cherishing life, which is supposed to serve as a guideline for catholic voters on June 10. Teenage, gay and lesbian sexual activity is condemned, contraception attacked as sinful and in an attempt to make the grim message palatable there is a pious plea to end war and overcome poverty. However, it is abortion which is singled out. The 1967 act legalising abortion in Britain "has had a corrupting effect" on society and, of course, abortion is sickeningly equated with murder: "Many thousands of children a year, while still in their mothers' wombs, are being killed not through incompetence or isolated malice, but because of a corrupting ideology."

Irish society - north and south - is presumably closer to god, uncorrupted and altogether superior to Britain as far as the good bishops are concerned. Why? Because a bigoted reactionary alliance joining together the catholic church, conservative republicans, Dana-ites and Paisleyite loyalists have successfully withstood demands that women themselves should control their bodies - not the church or the state. True, in Northern Ireland it is possible for abortions to be carried out, but only in extreme circumstances, where the woman's life is considered to be in grave danger - a situation analogous to that in Britain prior to the 1967 act. In the Irish Republic, however, the situation is still more prohibitive.

Although, as in the north, the law formally provides for the possibility of a termination where the woman's life is at risk because of pregnancy, reality is far different. Because the catholic church - which runs the majority of hospitals in the south - forbids abortion unless the foetus cannot survive under any circumstances, there is de facto a situation where abortions are not officially carried out, even where the woman's health is in danger.

But despite that many Irish women manage to find ways of getting round the ban. It is estimated, for example, that between 7,000 and 10,000 travel to Britain every year to end a pregnancy. The number could even be higher because women will give false details or pretend that they live in Britain. It is an expensive and difficult option and for many working class women it is simply not viable. Besides the secrecy and the shame there is the fact that they simply cannot afford to make the journey. Instead they attempt to abort the pregnancy themselves or put up with their lot.

The law prohibiting abortion is based on the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act and current legislation still allows a woman who procures an abortion to be sentenced to life imprisonment, while any doctor who helped her can get three years. This was not enough, however, for the 'pro-life' movement in the south. In the 1980s it campaigned successfully for the law to be further tightened up. A referendum resulted in an amendment to the constitution, article 40.3.3, which guarantees the equal right to life of the 'unborn' and "guarantees … to respect and, as far as practicable, … to defend and vindicate that right".

This was a major blow for women. Spurred on by their victory, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children then took a series of cases against the Dublin Well Woman, Open Door Counselling and three students' unions to stop them providing information on where and how to obtain an abortion. They won all the cases, with the supreme court deciding that the provision of such information was in breach of Article 40.3.3, as it undermined the 'rights' of the foetus. So women are trapped, unable to freely access information on the question.

The 1980s were a strange and deeply reactionary decade. Pope John Paul II praised the Irish republic for being the last bastion of true catholicism. His trip to the country in 1979 had been greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm and devotion, with thousands turning out to welcome him. In 1985 a statue of the Virgin Mary in Ballinaspittal, County Cork, was said to have moved. This prompted a bout of religious fervour, with throngs of people from all over the country wanting to witness the 'miracle'. Before you knew it icons began to move in other grottos throughout the south of Ireland. Clearly 'our lady' was trying to say something: she was warning against change, in the shape of divorce and abortion. A climate of fear hung over the country aimed at intimidating uppity women. Rumours abounded of 'pro-life' people waiting at train stations and ports to try and find those they suspected might be going to Britain for an abortion and get them to turn back. For women it was a frightening time.

But, as the catholic church revelled in its influence over large sections of the population, there were a number of scandals that shocked the country. They involved women desperate not to have children. The bodies of two full-term babies were found in Caherciveen in Kerry. An unmarried woman, Joanne Hayes, was said to be the mother and their murderer. The prosecution case was full of anomalies - not least DNA evidence that showed she could not have been the mother of both babies. But, determined to prove her guilty, the prosecution and gardaí argued that the absence of a DNA match could be explained by the claim that she had sex with two different men on the same night - and produced twins. She was said to have drowned one in the sea and buried the other in the garden.

Experts appeared from everywhere and the country became obsessed with her supposed promiscuity and cold-blooded nature. She was scorned as an evil and unnatural woman. But, as the trial proceeded, it became apparent how ridiculous the accusations were and the case collapsed. The authoritarian christian right was exposed for its sickening obsession and determination to victimise any woman who dared to have sex outside of marriage. The case also helped reveal the situation of women driven to despair by the insistence that their first duty was to give birth, irrespective of their own wishes.

Another such case was that of Anne Lovett, a 15-year-old girl whose body was found beside a grotto for the Virgin Mary in small village called Granard in 1984. Beside her lay her full-term baby, also dead. It was a sad and damning indictment of a society that had made a young girl so desperate to hide her pregnancy and with nowhere to go to end it.

But the 'pro-life' organisations carried on their campaign to deny women abortion rights, including even the right to travel abroad for the purpose. In 1992 a court in Dublin granted an injunction refusing a 14-year-old rape victim the right to leave the country to travel to England. This case, known as the 'X case', caused tremendous controversy. Demonstrations were organised in opposition to the decision to make her stay and the turnout was surprisingly big - with 10,000 marching in Dublin and smaller protests in other cities. The supreme court was forced to back down and after weeks of waiting the girl was finally allowed to leave.

This ruling created a loophole. It said that, if it was established that there was a real risk to the life of the mother - which could include suicide - that could be avoided by the termination of the pregnancy, than an abortion should be allowed. What this meant in practice was that women would be permitted to leave the country in such circumstances. For the next 10 years the religious right campaigned to have this decision overturned. But they started to encounter changing attitudes, particularly within urban areas and among the young, influenced by the events of the previous decade and the emergence of one seedy revelation after another about the clergy.

The 'X case' coincided with a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that stated that the ban on abortion information was a breach of Article 10, which guarantees freedom of expression. A three-part referendum was then held that produced an overwhelming vote in favour of the right to information and to make abortion available in Ireland for women who are suicidal because of pregnancy. Still the law was not changed to make this provision available. But the government did introduce the Regulation of Information Act in 1995. This allowed information in certain restrictive circumstances. Importantly it stated that the 'rights of the unborn' could not override the will of the people, as expressed in the 1992 referendums.

But the 'pro-life' campaign, in particular the church, continued to press for restrictions. Bowing to pressure, the Fianna Fáil government tried to introduce new legislation in 2002 to limit the effect of the supreme court's decision in the 'X case'. Specifically it aimed to remove the clause permitting abortion if the woman is suicidal. The Protection of Human Life in Pregnancy Act was put to the country and narrowly rejected.

Things had certainly changed. The church had become deeply discredited in the preceding years, as stories emerged about the abuse that had been endemic within orphanages and unmarried mothers' homes. The Magdalene Laundries are a now famous example of the horror and hypocrisy of Irish catholicism and its 'pro-life' agenda. Women had been shamed and demonised because of their sexuality and their children had been taken from them. A majority of the population certainly did not want to go back to that.

But, despite the setbacks for the church, the situation remains serious. Doctors are prohibited from making an appointment with an abortion service for a woman even if her life is in danger. In practice women are still not allowed to have their pregnancy terminated, even when their lives are at risk. Most people do not go public, but the case of Sheila Hodgers illustrates the reality. She was taken off her anti-cancer drugs against her will when she became pregnant. Both she and her premature baby died.

The issue will continue to be an arena of political struggle - the situation for women in Ireland remains dire. Those who can afford it are allowed to go to Britain, where they tend to have late abortions because of the difficulties associated with arranging travel, accommodation, etc. But the issue is about more than finance. It is about the right of women to determine their own lives - to lead independent and equal existences.

Pro-choice campaigns continue to struggle for women's rights. The Alliance for Choice defied the law recently by handing out leaflets containing abortion information in Dublin on March 8 - International Women's Day. This is still an arrestable offence under the 1995 Regulation of Information Act.

Back in 1992 the Socialist Workers Party in Ireland published a useful pamphlet as part of the campaign for a 'no' vote in the referendum and for free abortion on demand. After summarising the struggle for women's rights and exposing the arguments and the forces behind the 'pro-life' campaign, it ended with an emphatic assertion: "And control of fertility, our right to free contraception and abortion when we need it, is a prerequisite to women's liberation. It is for this reason that the abortion issue is not an 'optional extra' for the Irish left, but a vital part of the struggle for workers' rights generally" (SW Books Abortion - why Irish women must have the right to choose).

Its comrades in Britain should heed this advice.