Legislators must refuse to legalise abortion

The Government has called for a public debate on the bill it intends to pass that will make abortion legal in Ireland for the first time.

Members of the Government tell us that they are obliged by the Constitution and the courts to enact this bill.

That is exactly the line taken by the leaders of the Southern states of America in defence of their right to maintain slavery in their states.

When I hear some of the rhetoric being used by members of the Government, I am reminded of Prof James M McPherson’s account of the speech by the Southern senator, Albert G Brown, prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War in which he claimed, “The right of protection of our slave property in the Territories. The Constitution, as expounded by the Supreme Court, awards it. We demand it; we mean to have it”.

Prof McPherson explains that the Southern leaders saw “Slavery not as an evil that the Yankee fanatics portrayed; it was a positive good”.

But there were other legislators in the US who held that, to quote Prof McPherson again, “All people were created equal in God’s sight; the souls of black folks were as valuable as those of whites; for one of God’s children to enslave another was a violation of the Higher Law, even if it was sanctioned by the Constitution”.

Through the courage of those legislators the Higher Law prevailed.

Surely the Celtic Tiger has not succeeded in robbing the Irish people of their most precious inheritance, their acceptance of that Higher Law?

There remains, of course, the fear our legislators have of being out of step with the rest of the world. Ireland was not afraid to lead the world by introducing the smoking ban, as it considered it to be a matter of life and death. May Ireland lead the world again in the matter of life and death now before us, and refuse to make abortion legal in our beloved country.

Fr Michael G Murphy, (retired)

Bishopstown

Cork