Rural attitudes - Abortion law is too strict, say farmers

IT IS more than 30 years since Garret FitzGerald gave a commitment to pro-life campaigners to legislate to ban abortion in Ireland. Nearly every government since then has been confronted by the incendiary issue and the divisive legacy of that FitzGerald promise, one he must have often regretted making. 

If he did not then, it must be assumed that most of his successors did regret the fact that he brought such a polarising issue to the centre stage of our political life but then, as now, the issue was unavoidable. Like it or not, abortion is part of our world, even if it is illegal in this State. Honesty decrees that we deal with it sooner or later, one way or another.

The issue, one that has drained so much energy from our political discourse, is usually dropped like the hottest of hot potatoes by whoever is in government because no matter what was, or might be, decided on the subject, some section of society will be outraged. However, European court rulings, preventable tragedies in our hospitals where lives were unnecessarily lost, the end of the Catholic Church’s hegemony in our public affairs, and what seems to be a far less absolute public attitude on abortion today means that it is unfinished business rather than something carved in stone.