Minimal change in abortion law is likely, and it won’t please either side

The committee will likely end up recommending abortion in restrictive circumstances, writes Alison O’Connor

THE starting gun was fired on an abortion referendum this week, likely to be held early next summer. Outside the Dáil, anti-abortion protesters gathered, singing ‘Ave Maria’ and holding placards, while, tomorrow, tens of thousands of people will take to the streets of Dublin in the sixth annual March for Choice.

Neither side will be at all happy. We have an Oireachtas committee considering the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly and due to report by the end of the year. But, waiting in the wings, we have a Cabinet (well, the majority Fine Gael part of it) that has no interest in putting to the people a referendum that suggests a serious liberalising of our abortion laws.