Of the more than 2,000 submissions that have been made to the Government's Working Group on Abortion, an outline of the contents of only a few have been released by their authors into the public arena. The latest of these is a document from the Adelaide Hospital Society, issued last week, which proposes that abortion in Ireland should be dealt with in the overall context of women's health care and that the Government should legislate to make this possible, at least within the legal framework established by the courts' decisions in the `X' and `C' cases. Where it is medically indicated and legally permitted, therefore, the suggestion is that the termination of a crisis pregnancy could be undertaken in the new Tallaght Hospital to which the Adelaide will shortly move.
The Society's submission makes very clear that, as a Christian charitable organisation, it is committed to the sanctity of human life and to the dignity of the person. "We believe that a Christian and caring approach is one that provides the very best health-care for everyone, including citizens who have made choices which others believe to be detrimental to their human dignity or to their health", the document says, and it goes on to say that the current number of Irish abortions (still necessarily sought in other jurisdictions) could be reduced by the provision of better and more widespread contraceptive education and services. In brief, the Society does not favour abortion, but acknowledges that it exists and that those who seek it should be medically supported before, during and after the event.
This is humane, charitable and respectful of the individual conscience and integrity of each woman burdened by a crisis pregnancy. It is a far cry from the insensitive bellowings that have marked the various "debates" on constitutional amendments and statute law concerning abortion in Ireland, most of them apparently oblivious of the fact that somewhere between 4,000 and an estimated 10,000 Irish women make the painful choice each year (usually unsupported by counselling or medical care) to travel to England to terminate their pregnancies. Besides, it is well established that abortion rates are not influenced by legislation: some states that have liberal abortion laws have among the lowest rates of abortion and some that have had draconian legal prohibitions have had among the highest rates of abortion. In many instances of the latter those abortions have been both illegal and lethal for the women undergoing them.
It seems highly likely that a comprehensive, caring and non-directive health care service for Irish women will be more effective in reducing the numbers seeking abortion than meaningless constitutional or statute legislation which takes no cognisance of today's realities. And it is more than a little disingenuous of the Minister for Health, Mr Cowan, to state, as he did last week when speaking to a nurses' meeting in Tralee, that the Adelaide Hospital Society's submission will be viewed by his working group as just one of the thousands of submissions made. Apart from anything else, the new Tallaght Hospital's governance structure, in which the Society has a most immediate concern, was constructed in such a way as to guarantee a voice and a nursing and medical practice consonant with an ethics code that is not necessarily in accord with that of the majority religious tradition on this island. Mr Cowan's working group will do well to bear that in mind, particularly in what could become critical analysis by those in Northern Ireland keen to see the new all-Ireland peace process working fairly and effectively.