Alan Shatter: Let people vote on issue of abortion

Alan Shatter, the former justice minister, has waded into the latest row on abortion and declared that politicians can no longer hide behind emotive debate and must instead give people a referendum.

Mr Shatter also called for a vote on overhauling the rules for divorce and warned that the Coalition’s upcoming same-sex marriage referendum could be lost.

His comments came as Tánaiste Joan Burton was last night scrambling to deal with her first rebellion as Labour leader, after disagreement broke out over a Dáil motion on fatal foetal abnormalities.

Labour TD Anne Ferris has been expelled from the parliamentary party after supporting a private member’s motion to legislate for terminations in such cases.

Ms Burton and Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the bill, brought by Independent TD Clare Daly, was unconstitutional. It was ultimately voted down in the Dáil.

Ms Burton said she was disappointed Ms Ferris had voted against Labour and it was up to the Wicklow TD whether she now applies to rejoin the parliamentary party.

The Dáil record shows 88% of all TDs abstained or voted against the bill. Sinn Féin TDs abstained while three of Fianna Fáil’s 20 TDs supported it. Four Labour TDs were absent for the vote.

Ms Daly accused the Government of “political cowardice”. She said her bill was supported by civil and human rights groups and that it was up to the courts to decide if it was unconstitutional.

Mr Shatter, a Fine Gael TD who was addressing a constituency meeting in south Dublin, said it was an “enormous cruelty” that a woman was forced to bring to full term a pregnancy involving fatal foetal abnormality. It was also “unacceptable” that a victim of rape should be compelled to keep a pregnancy, he said.

Constitutional change was needed to address these concerns, he said, adding that it was “no longer tenable for those in political life, for fear of the inevitable emotive debate that will ensue, to deprive people of an opportunity in a referendum to express their views”.

Mr Shatter also called for constitutional changes to the divorce laws whereby spouses are locked into “a legal limbo” and required to wait four years for complete separation.

He also had harsh words for his successor as justice minister, Frances Fitzgerald, as he warned that slow progress with family legislation threatens to derail the plans on same-sex marriage.

He said if the Children and Family Relationship Bill was not enacted well before the May vote, it “will facilitate those opposed to constitutional change generating controversy and muddying the waters and misleading people into voting no”.