More than 100,000 Irish women have travelled to Britain for abortions since the 1983 constitutional amendment giving equal rights to life to the pregnant mother and unborn child,according to campaigners for the repeal of the amendment.
At a press conference in Dublin yesterday, which was disrupted by Youth Defence, a number of women's and civil rights organisations demanded a liberalisation of the law which they said was failing women. They called on the Government to show "political courage" and address the reality of women's lives. The event marked the 20th anniversary of the 1983 referendum.
It was attended by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties; the single parents' group, Cherish; Dublin Well Woman's Centre; Alliance for Choice; the Irish Family Planning Association; the National Women's Council of Ireland; the Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre; and Cork Women's Right to Choose group.
The chief executive of Dublin Well Woman Centre, Ms Alison Begas, said the number of Irish women travelling to Britain for abortions showed that, far from stopping abortion, the 1983 amendment had "launched us on 20 years of hypocrisy, secrecy and denial".
There was growing evidence Irish people supported the availability of abortion in cases of rape, incest and severe foetal abnormality. Abortion was a "personal moral choice and a woman's health issue", which had no place in the Constitution.
"Our Constitution is an aspirational document, drawn up to express the potential of the Irish people. It should not be restrictive," she said.
Ms Ivana Bacik, Reid Professor of Criminal Law at TCD and a member of Alliance for Choice said: "Over the 20 years since 1983, we know that 100,000 Irish women have gone to England for abortions. Women with crisis pregnancies travel every day of every week. While we have gone through several referendums, nothing has changed for them. It is time to recognise the real needs of women and change the law."
Ms Ailbhe Smyth, director of the Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre at UCD, accused the Republic's politicians of lacking courage. She called on the Government to immediately hold a referendum on the 1983 amendment which she was certain would be rejected.
"It would be laughed out of the ballot box. It would be seen as absurd for a modern, pluralist democracy," she said.
The amendment had created a "legal quagmire, a nightmare for doctors, and unbearable misery for thousands of women who travel to England, and the thousands more unable to make the journey because of a lack of money, information, or social space".
Twenty years after the referendum, she was "as angry as ever", she said.
"I am angry at the denial of our human right to bodily integrity and well-being. I am angry we are denied the freedom to make informed, ethical, sane decisions on how we live our lives."
The director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Ms Aisling Reidy, said the amendment had led to "a catalogue of violations of the rights of women and girls - some of them particularly tragic".
Instead of being compassionate, the law had subjected women to "degrading and inhuman treatment".
She cited the "X" case, where a suicidal 14-year-old rape victim was initially prohibited from travelling to Britain for an abortion, and the "C" case where a young girl in a similar situation in State care had to obtain the court's permission to travel. In 20 years time, she hoped pro-choice campaigners would be celebrating the introduction of safe, legal abortion in the Republic.
Cherish's director, Ms Karen Kiernan, accused the Government of hypocrisy in opposing abortion but ignoring the needs of single mothers. "The Government prevents women from dealing with crisis pregnancies in a dignified way. Does this mean it pursues a pro-single parents' social policy agenda? Absolutely not."