Ireland is only one of several European nations to take a restrictive approach to abortion
The greatest achievement of Europe's human rights framework has been to banish the death penalty from its shores. The same continental unanimity is entirely lacking in other matters of life and death. Europeans may listen in with amusement to the loony tunes that emanate from culture wars of the United States, but on abortion the truth is that they have themselves avoided bitter divisions only by agreeing to disagree. For all the qualifications and attempted reversal, the Roe v Wade decision still provides American women with a right to abortion which has no European counterpart. The position varies wildly across the continent, with Malta banning the practice entirely, and Ireland being almost as restrictive, as a Strasbourg ruling underlined last week.
The European court of human rights last week settled the case of three Irish residents who argued that their wellbeing had been jeopardised by their need to travel abroad in order to secure an abortion. Ireland's theocratic strictures on terminations are nothing new. The abortionist Mamie Cadden was sentenced to hang in 1957, and during the half-century since there have been repeat referendums, a constitutional amendment and a run of test cases, but the basic bar remains in full force except in tightly prescribed circumstances, most notably where the woman's life is in danger. This notional get-out clause dates to a 1992 court ruling in the case of a suicidal teenage rape victim but, during the 18 years since then, Dublin's politicians have refused to tidy up the position, and this minimal theoretical right remains in a practical limbo, for the most part effected only by pregnant women taking a trip to Britain.
All three of the women in last week's case ended up making the journey across the Irish sea. One already had children in care, another feared for an ectopic pregnancy, and Strasbourg's dismissal of the complaints of them both underlined Europe's lack of general reproductive rights. The ruling went against the Republic only in the case of the third woman, whose continuing pregnancy would have been likely to lead to a rare cancer's return, and ? even then ? Ireland was pulled up only because it had failed to give effect to its own courts' past ruling that the life of mother deserved some weight. Irish law may now finally have to be clarified, so that doctors can at least advise pregnant women that they are in medical need of an abortion without fear of being criminalised.
While undoubtedly a step forward, the change in prospect is equally undoubtedly only a small advance. Dublin's politicians have no shortage of problems on their plate at the moment, and will be in no rush to get into defining what constitutes a threat to maternal life, a controversial thing to pin down, turning on subjective judgments about ? among other things ? suicide risk. If past performance is any guide, the Irish authorities will devise a minimal fix to get through. Neither stigma, wellbeing nor the relations between a mother and her existing children are likely to get a look-in in the reformed policy. The unreformed practice will continue to be back-street terminations and visits abroad.
For all the Catholic church's shaming over sexual abuse, the Republic remains a deeply Catholic country and this affects both public opinion and the parameters of the politically possible on the abortion question. Ireland, however, is only one of several European nations to take a restrictive approach, and even in Britain there is no absolute right to a termination at every stage of pregnancy, with women having to persuade two doctors to agree to her wishes on the basis of restrictive criteria. Legal protections for European citizens are often traced back to the Declaration of the Rights of Man. If the rights of women had instead been declared with the same force throughout history, today's European abortion laws would surely look very different.
Household bills Post-traumatic stress disorder Soap opera Comedy Doctor Who Kevin Campbell
No comments:
Post a Comment