Well it’s been quite a week so far in terms of the national discussion on abortion. We’ve had priests from Cork comparing women to cattle in the Irish Times, former Taoiseach John Bruton claiming that a 14 year old child should have been forced to bear her rapist’s baby, and that was all before we got as far as Wednesday.
The accolade for most rage-inducing moment so far, however, goes to Fine Gael TD Peter Matthews. While discussing a situation where continuing with a pregnancy would damage the woman’s health in the long term on TV3’s Tonight with Vincent Browne, Matthews- in an astonishing display of total disrespect for half of the country’s population - remarked “sure we’re all going to end up dead anyway.” By his logic, we might as well give up on healthcare altogether. SOUND, PETER.
Hopefully the constituents of Dublin South will remember his attitude towards pregnant women in difficulty the next time he comes knocking on doors and give him absolute hell.
Over the course of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the Government’s Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill emerged, which appears to be a tiny step in the right general area (I can’t even say direction as it’s so very restrictive). It requires a suicidal pregnant woman to jump through hoops in order to prove herself worthy to a panel of three doctors who may or may not grant her the right to a termination. The woman’s decision doesn’t even come into the equation, as she has the outcome decided for her.
You see, women can’t be trusted and will try anything to trick unsuspecting doctors into giving them a termination, the duplicitous wenches. Or so some of the country’s politicians would have you believe.
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As it stands, the Bill also carries a potential 14 year prison sentence for anyone party to an abortion outside the terms agreed, which is all the more galling when rapists and sex offenders in this country have barely gotten six months in jail and a half-hearted slap on the wrist.
The legislation won’t come anywhere near covering cases of rape, incest, or fatal foetal abnormalities, and yet some politicians and campaigners still think that it’s going too far or harmful to women. Newsflash, guys: what’s ACTUALLY harmful to women is forced pregnancy. It’s an attitude completely devoid of respect or compassion for women and I find it extremely hard to listen to people who would force their archaic beliefs on anyone with a uterus in this country. And if I hear the word “floodgates” one more time, I’m going to scream.
It’s particularly depressing to see female politicians, such as Fidelma Healy Eames, Michelle Mulherin and Lucinda Creighton question the inclusion of the threat of suicide as grounds for abortion. They seem to have conveniently forgotten that the whole crux of the X Case was that a 14 year old rape victim was so distressed by her pregnancy that she was going to take her own life. Oh, and the Supreme Court ruling, two referenda and the European Court of Human Rights don’t seem to matter to them either. Thankfully we also have women like Ivana Bacik, Ciara Conway and Clare Daly who openly support a woman’s right to choose.
We need to stay angry, we need legislation that reflects the opinion of the majority of people in this country and we’re going to have to fight tooth and bloody nail for it.
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Protest photo by Billy Fitzgerald
