Trying to square the circle - Abortion debate

Yesterday morning, just after dealing with the latest details on the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill and the report on the needless death of Savita Halappanavar, the very first word uttered by RTÉ’s Morning Ireland news reader was “Ryanair”.

The coincidence, the ironic juxtaposition, was a reminder, a reality check from the real world, that no matter what eventually transpires on legislation dealing with pregnancy abortion is and will always be a reality in modern Ireland — even if it is out-sourced to other jurisdictions.

The comfort sought by those who insist that Ireland must remain abortion free must be of a flimsy, transparent kind, more imagined than lived, when this fact is accepted. It shows we are happier dealing with the complexities of theory rather than the cold, sometimes ugly and cruel, actuality of lives lived by women today.

This is not to advocate abortion — or to oppose it — but rather to suggest honesty and the courage needed to deal with the world we really live in rather than that infamous and crowded dance hall on the head of a pin.

And, according to Independent TD John Halligan, speaking in the Dáil yesterday morning, that world is becoming more aggressive. He described the “level of abuse and intimidation” directed at politicians by pro-life activists and the Catholic Church. The Waterford TD said he had been a victim of such abuse. “I’ve had people come to my house after 12 o’clock at night ... one [TD] has been threatened with having her throat cut,” he said.

Needless to say, but because this debate is fuelled by belief it must be said, abuse of politicians who oppose the measure by those who advocate abortion would be equally unacceptable. In an increasingly pluralist — just a term for tolerance and mutual respect — society that level of personal assault is unacceptable, especially when directed at an elected representative of a community.

Though the abortion debate is littered with references to the sacredness of life, born or unborn, another metric that describes how we really treat children came to light at the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children yesterday. Consultant paediatrician Dr Sinead Murphy told the committee that almost a third of seven year-olds are overweight or obese. Undoubtedly some of those children’s parents would resent the suggestion that this represents neglect bordering on abuse but as the life-changing and often fatal consequences of obesity are more and more obvious how else can it be described? It is possible — and ironic — that some of those parents are pro-life campaigners.

If the great fury, the great passion, not to mention the thousands of hours of legislators’ time, dedicated to trying to match incompatible beliefs through legislation, spent on pretending we can legislate to ban abortion, was devoted to real measures to curb child obesity and the terribly unhealthy lives that it leads to then something really worthwhile would be achieved. Instead, we will persist with a cultural civil war and all of the dishonesty — on both sides — that fuels it. And, in the end, not one woman determined to have an abortion will be prevented from having one.

It may be too much to hope that the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill will bring an end to all of this dishonesty and double standards but, despite everything, let us hope it does.