Politicians settle into echo chamber

As the committee hearing on abortion begins, it seems like some of the politicians present want to leave well enough alone, writes Michael Clifford

INTO THE breach once more, dear friends. Austerity may bite, markets may tumble, wars may convulse, but nothing exercises the national psyche like the issue of abortion, or so it seemed yesterday as the latest round of self-flagellation got under way.

The first of three days of hearings by the Oireachtas health committee kicked off at the ungodly hour — by Leinster House standards — of 9.30am. The committee is conducting the hearings ahead of the drafting of legislation in response to the European Court of Human Rights ruling that instructed the State to legislate for the 1992 X case. That ruling includes a provision for abortion to be available in the case of a mother’s life being under threat from suicide — something that horrifies anti-abortion campaigners.

The committee will not make recommendations, which on one level renders the whole exercise as farcical.

Abortion is a highly sensitive subject, both nationally and between the coalition parties, so the executive has no desire to tip-toe around recommendations on foot of public hearings. Instead this exercise will culminate in nothing more than a report to the Cabinet, ensuring no pressure is applied to the deliberations of ministers. Its function in political terms is to take some of the heat out of the reaction that will come when the legislation is published.

The hallowed environs of the Seanad chamber is the novel location for this exercise. Televising the proceedings confers the notion of a national conversation, but at times yesterday it sounded more like an echo chamber. Medical professionals came in to give evidence of what transpires in the real world while some politicians made noises harking back to a time gone by, when human suffering played second fiddle to the power wielded by dominant institutions.

The committee’s chair, Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer, opened proceedings with a request that everybody gets through the thing in a “balanced, fair, and calm manner”.

First up was the Medical Council, the body charged with policing the performance of doctors. For the most part, the council’s president Kieran Murphy kicked to touch. The only matter of note that he enunciated was that the council’s guidelines did not include any specific provision for emergencies.

After his submission, the politicians rained questions down on him and the council’s director, Caroline Spillane. Unusually for a committee hearing, a number of Oireachtas members who are not on the committee were in attendance, and wanted to have their say. As a result, an hour was allocated for questions from committee members and another 20 minutes for other Oireachtas members. This meant people like Senator Jim Walsh, who has strong opinions on abortion, had an opportunity to get their spake in.

After a while a trend began to set. Some of the politicians asked questions that might be regarded as seeking information on the issue, the ostensible reason for the whole exercise. Others, particularly Fine Gael members, appeared to be looking for answers that might negate the requirement for any legislation. In other words, why not leave well enough alone?

“Have the Medical Council received any complaints as it stands,” asked Billy Timmons, referring to the current situation whereby doctors have no specific protection from the law.

Senator Paul Bradford wanted to know: “What level of complaints [has there been] in relation to the current situation.”

Jim Walsh asked questions in a similar tone, and complained that none of his queries were adequately addressed.

In effect, the Medical Council was being put under the kosh by lawmakers, and it took Labour’s Eamon Maloney to point out: “I’m slightly concerned at the direction the hearing is going in. The European Court [of Human Rights] made no reference to what the Medical Council did or did not do, but what you and I did or did not do. The shortcomings are our shortcomings.”

THE second and third sessions of the day heard from obstetricians and psychiatrists, respectively. The master of Holles St hospital, Rhona Mahony, gave a strong performance, repeatedly emphasising that as a doctor her primary concern was preserving life, but that she was also entitled to protection from the law.

“I need to know that I will not go to jail,” she said, referring to the consequences for a doctor performing a termination in order to save the life of a mother. She estimated that between 10 and 20 terminations are performed in the State annually when the life of a mother is endangered. Sam Coulter Smith, master of the Rotunda, put the figure at between 20 and 30. In a state that is expert at ignoring awkward questions, no national statistic is actually compiled for these terminations.

Again a number of the questions from some quarters were of a kind: “Is there any evidence that women didn’t receive the appropriate care on legal grounds,” asked Fine Gael deputy Terence Flanagan. Others echoed this sentiment that appeared to be posing the rhetorical question — if it ain’t broke, why fix it? It seems that while many of the politicians have moved in concert with middle Ireland, others pine to hold back the tide of change that is due to arrive with the forthcoming legislation.

The main bugbear among this constituency is the provision for suicide and whether this might lead to an opening of “floodgates” for widespread abortion, a position which deftly sidesteps the reality that more than 4,000 abortions on Irish women take place annually.

Psychiatrist Patricia Casey believes legislation will open these mythical gates. “The floodgate phenomenon, yes, I believe there will be widespread abortion in a short period,” she said.

Her colleague Veronica O’Keane doesn’t think so. “At the moment, Irish women are going over to the UK, whether this is going to change as a result of legislation, I don’t know. Limits of legislation say it is only in extreme [cases], that’s the law that we work within.”

Today, it’s the turn of the legal experts, and tomorrow the Church lobbyists. Batten down the hatches, there’s some way to go yet before we come out the other side.