The status of a group called Catholics For a Free Choice was questioned by Mr Brian Lenihan, chairman of the all-party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, at the final day of the abortion hearings yesterday.
The American-based group (CFFC), was preparing to present its submission to the Oireachtas hearing when Mr Lenihan asked if its representatives were Irish citizens. One of the three-member delegation, Mr Jon O'Brien, said he was. Mr Lenihan asked if the group had been described by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in America as "not being an official Catholic organisation" and as promoting a position contrary to that of the Holy See.
It later emerged that the National Conference of Catholic Bishops had contacted the Oireachtas committee pointing out that the CFFC did not speak for the Catholic Church and that it distorted Catholic teaching on the rights of the unborn.
Mr O'Brien, CFFC vice-president, said some members of the Catholic Church clearly did not accept the teaching that abortion was always wrong in every circumstance. "Public opinion proves it and the droves of women who travel to England and Wales each year to have abortions prove it," he said.
Catholics for a Free Choice called for the seventh option listed in the Green Paper. Option seven would permit abortion "on grounds beyond those specified in the X case, for example, risk to the physical or mental health of the woman, cases of rape or incest or economic or social reasons".
Members of the Cork Women's Right to Choose Group called for free abortion facilities in Ireland. Group spokeswoman Ms Sandra McEvoy said the Government should legislate for abortion on request "similar to the arrangements in countries such as Austria, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands and Sweden".
She said that the Dutch model of allowing abortions up to the twelfth week of pregnancy was a good example of best practice. Asked if the people of Ireland would accept this, Ms McEvoy said that opinions in this State had changed greatly since the last abortion referendum.
Suggestions for reducing the rate of abortions were made by the Women's Health Council, a statutory body set up to advise the Minister for Health. Ms Geraldine Luddy, Women's Health Council director, said none of the seven options put forward in the Green Paper on Abortion would reduce the rates of abortion and crisis pregnancies.
She said the Government would have to draw up a 10-year strategy to reduce abortion rates. "Such a strategy should involve policies, actions and initiatives at national, regional and local level, with a view to implementing evidence-based formal policy, procedures and programmes within five to ten years."
Ms McEvoy pointed to the difficulties faced by women in rural areas who wished to access contraception, and, in particular, the morning-after pill. She said that family planning clinics were not available in many rural areas and young people were often reluctant to ask their local GP. "An over-reliance on post-coital contraception is not to be encouraged but it has its place," she said.
