This past week has seen a change in the air surrounding the repeal the eighth campaign. After months of creative optimism, the reality of the obstacles in the face of the campaign have been brought to the fore. On Tuesday, a counter motion was agreed by Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance to the Anti Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit’s bill to repeal the eighth amendment, ensuring that a referendum on the matter will not be held until 2018 at the earliest. This move has been interpreted by some as putting women’s rights in Ireland once again on the long finger. It was under the shadow of these developments that Trinity’s Law Society (Law Soc) hosted a Mock Citizen’s Convention on repealing the eighth amendment last night. Collaborative efforts with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) saw the society welcome guest speakers from the opposing pro-life and pro-choice sides, with Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan holding the position of chair.
Law Soc Secretary, Tom Cantillon, welcomed an estimated crowd of 60 to the event, before offering a breakdown of the debate to follow. Each of the six speakers would be given six minutes to speak, before questions would be taken from the floor.
In her opening address, Justice Finlay Geoghegan noted that she did not intend to express any particular view on the delicate subject, but illustrated to the audience her understanding of how the motion at hand had given “rise to very strong and differing views”. She told her predominantly student audience that “it is the privilege of youth to see things in black and white”, but further explained that the intricacies of subject matter raised complex issues of constitutional human rights. She posed the question to both the floor and the speakers present of how these rights can be balanced.
On this matter, lecturer in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), and representative for Doctors for Choice Dr Mark Murphy was first to address the floor, offering the perspective of a GP. Murphy stressed the need for the concept of abortion to be normalised in our society, highlighting that “abortion is a normal experience in the reproductive lives of many women”. In Ireland, however, for 12 women everyday, the experience of travelling overseas for this procedure may be more familiar. Exploring the issue of crisis pregnancy, Murphy argued that the “solution for that pregnancy is whatever the woman chooses”. In response to Justice Finlay Geoghegan’s claims that the issue of abortion in Ireland is inherently complex, Murphy disagreed. He instead found it to be “a very simple issue” which should be managed in the way the every other medical procedure is managed, remarking that “bad laws do not make good medicine”.
Lorcán Price, legal councillor for the Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF) was the first pro-life speaker to take to the stand. Price sought to explain why the provision is in the constitution, and posed the question of “why is it worth retaining?”. Price argued that the notion of choice being unrestrained is fundamentally incorrect: “In any society that has the rule of law, rights are balanced against each other.” For Price, the correct balance is already found in Ireland’s constitution. In looking at the alternative to the constitution in its current form, Price warned against using the UK’s NHS model for abortion, taking it as a given that Ireland would undoubtedly follow this form and invoking alarming statistics to ward against it. He finished by noting that the repeal campaign was nothing more than a “misguided attempt to protect rights where we already protect rights”.
Jenna Healy, representing Parents for Choice, held the position of the pro-choice side’s second speaker. Healy presented the case of Parents for Choice, and their ongoing campaigning for free, safe and legal abortion. She argued that there is no place in our constitution for inherited ideology which was responsible for the creation for the Magdalene Laundries, explaining that the amendment
“does not value life” and is instead “about control”. Healy effectively explained how the legislation is both “oppressive and devastating”, and “does not prevent” abortion, but forcefully bars it. She then illustrated how this impacts upon the most vulnerable members of society: those who “lack financial support, who are in controlling relationships, who cannot travel”. As a parent, Healy reminded her audience of her personal investment in the debate: “We are parents, we have children… when it comes to making decisions… we are thoroughly informed”. Finally, Healy called on her audience to protect their future, the future that is “living, breathing children.”
Lorraine McMahon, spokesperson for the Pro-Life Campaign followed Healy. McMahon opened by suggesting to her audience that there are very few laws in Ireland that “save lives”. She questioned the prospect of holding a referendum which could take away “the right to life”, and argued that the constitution “should be about adding lives, not taking them away”, maintaining a strict focus on the right of the unborn. She then moved to present the idea of repealing the eighth as “nothing to do with saving women’s lives”, and urged that “this mentality needs to be challenged”. To further her point, McMahon considered Marie Stopes Clinics in the UK, and advised that “women have been kept in the dark for too long about poor standards of care at Marie Stopes clinics”, invoking Aisha Chithira’s tragic death in 2012 at a clinic in Ealing to support her case. For McMahon, “Abortion is life ending, not life saving”, and finished by asking her audience to be “proud” of their pro-life laws.
Orla O’Connor, Director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, then spoke on behalf of the largest women’s organisation in Ireland. O’Connor began by tracing the evolution of the organisation’s stance on abortion, which had allowed her to gather “a real sense of the different perspectives” which are encompassed in the issue. O’Connor presented the idea that there are a great many circumstances which may contribute to a woman considering an abortion, and in all of these circumstances “it is very clear that the eighth amendment doesn’t work”. O’Connor then directly addressed the earlier speech of Price, which had “very little mention of women’s rights”. She articulately argued that “women must be in a position to control their own fertility”, and must be “provided with the fullest range of choices”. O’Connor then moved to examine the consequences for women who cannot speak about their abortions in Ireland for fear of backlash, and reminded audiences that the United Nations Human Rights Committee had deemed Irish law as a violation of human rights. She closed by noting that the eighth amendment established in the 1983 was created “of a society that thought it was right to control women’s lives”. For O’Connor, “Irish society has changed… we have to deal with the eighth”.
Closing the pro-life’s arguments, solicitor and Deputy Chairperson of the pro-Life Campaign, Cora Sherlock, took to the floor. Sherlock immediately called upon anecdotal evidence to argue her case, recalling the time that she was told by her mother that “abortion hurts children”. In the midst of pro-choice rhetoric, Sherlock wanted to “give Emma Beck a voice” – a British woman who had tragically committed suicide after aborting twins in 2008. For the second time, the pro-life side used emotive tragedy to further their case. Sherlock then urged her audience to “be courageous” in recognising the issue at hand, just as Beck’s mother had been courageous in sharing her daughter’s suicide note. Addressing O’Connor directly, Sherlock argued that the National Women’s Council of Ireland did not adequately represent women who had struggled with their abortions. Sherlock then tackled the issue of disability. She presented the case of Heidi Crowter, a young woman who is “a whirlwind of energy” and who admirably refuses to be defined by down syndrome. O’Connor argued for the case of the unborn child with disabilities, and urged her audience to recognise that “if [a referendum] is passed, people like Heidi will not be born”. In her closing words, O’Connor illustrated why she is opposed to abortion in Ireland: “It is not because I don’t trust women, but because I don’t trust abortion”, but failed to explain how the two can be separated. She then called on the audience to stay away from a referendum which “puts its grubby paws on democracy”.
The floor was then opened to an impassioned crowd for questions, which addressed issues such as Irish women traveling to the UK and the rights of disabled mothers. Similarly, questions were asked surrounding the relief of mothers who had decided against abortion, and the criminalisation of doctors involved in assisting Irish mothers who seek the procedure.
Running well over time, the dialogue that the debate had generated was telling of the importance of the issue at hand, and the need to provide opportunity for such conversations to occur. Although the government have refused to directly engage with the issue of repealing the eighth amendment, it was encouraging at least to see that Trinity students have not chosen the same stance. The evening provided them with an opportunity to listen to the opposing side of their position on the debate, and reminded them why they had reason to stay active and engaged over the months to come.
