Hollow debate leaves pregnant women empty-handed
THE Dáil was simultaneously at its best and worst yesterday during a debate on allowing women trapped in fatal-foetal pregnancies to seek a termination at home rather than endure the harrowing journey to England and back.
It was the parliament at its best because it was a passionate, informed debate about something that actually mattered; it was the Dáil at its worst because absolutely nothing will come of it — it was all talk and no action.
To say it was a debate is misleading. Not one deputy stood up to oppose the central proposal to give women termination rights in these strictly limited circumstances. Health Minister Leo Varadkar, and various Government TDs, while speaking sympathetically, insisted they had no electoral mandate for the changes proposed under Independent TD Clare Daly’s legislative amendment.
The Government did not have a mandate to cut child benefit and slash unemployment payments to people under 25 either, but, strangely, Fine Gael and Labour did not bother with the political niceties when ramming those two particularly nasty, mean-spirited measures through the Dáil.
The other argument against Ms Daly’s bill was that it was unconstitutional in terms of the eighth amendment, which gives equal status to the mother and unborn. But, as Ms Daly argued, let the courts decide that after parliament has spoken and represented the overwhelming view of the people, as consistently expressed in opinion polls.
Mr Varadkar’s stance could be summed-up thusly: “I’m liberal. I’m pro-choice. I care about this. I don’t care enough about this to actually do anything — well, not for now, anyway.”
The Health Minister did say he would campaign for repeal of the eighth amendment at the next general election — but, by then, how many other parents will have gone through the tragic experiences Richard Boyd Barrett shared with fellow TDs in a moving speech about the loss of his daughter.
“Next Tuesday, 13 years ago, I had to bury my daughter, Ella, who was born with fatal foetal abnormalities, and it was a beautiful spring day,” he said. “My children think about their sister all the time and desperately wish she was there, but she could not survive, she was the victim of the cruelty of nature, something that we cannot control.”
However, Mr Boyd Barrett added that parents should be able to control how they deal with the awful news that their child will not survive outside the womb, or will die very shortly after birth.
“Are we going to allow hundreds of people, again this year, to go through this terrible tragedy and make it worse for them?” asked Mr Boyd Barrett.
“When they receive the news, the least we can do is ensure that they have the right to decide how an inevitable ending-of-life occurs and whether they will have all the support, comfort and back-up that we can give them in a situation where a tragedy is inevitable.”
Fellow Independent TD Catherine Murphy described the dangers to women who have to return home before the termination process is complete; while others make an awful return journey with the remains of a pregnancy they wanted.
“It is a two-stage process, yet many women return having only one stage completed,” said Ms Murphy. “We are putting women at risk. A family wants to pay respect, not just to the foetus, but to the baby for which it hoped.
“People try to repatriate the remains through DHL packages, or in the boots of cars, and hope that they will not be stopped.
“It is outrageous that we are putting them in that position. I do not know why the Government parties, particularly Fine Gael, are so far behind the public on something that has humanity at its heart. People are trying to deal with a difficult situation in as sensitive a way as possible, but it seems that a small group of powerful people have a greater hold on public policy than the majority of those who want this issue addressed humanely.”
Sinn Féin TDs say they will abstain in the vote on the Daly amendment next Tuesday, because the party does not have a policy on the issue.
And whose fault is that? It is not as if this has just come to light, and, anyway, are Sinn Féin TDs incapable of thinking for themselves on such an important matter?
The Labour position demonstrates the weakness and lack of conviction that have dogged the party throughout this Coalition, and which will smash their numbers to pieces and scatter them to the four winds at the next general election.
Labour TDs bleat the Government line, like sheep, that there is no mandate for this measure.
This is utter hypocrisy, as 15 Labour deputies, including five ministers, signed an open letter to then Health Minister James Reilly — when he was progressing the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill through the Dáil — urging him to allow for terminations for fatal-foetal abnormalities.
Tánaiste Joan Burton is under intense pressure to allow a free vote on the Daly amendment, as Labourites know that, by going through the ‘No’ lobby next week, they will destroy one of the last vestiges of credibility the party has left.
And while Mr Varadkar may be right that it is unconstitutional, there is a very simple way to deal with that — rewrite the Constitution.
Along with the life-changing option of extending civil-marriage rights to same-sex couples in May, we will also be voting on the nothing question of reducing the minimum age of presidential candidates from 35 to 21.
Who cares about that?
Everybody should care about the experiences of parents dealing with fatal-foetal abnormalities and the added trauma this State crushes down on them when they deserve nothing but support.
A do-nothing Dáil has abandoned them yet again.
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