Sir, – From the comments in her letter (February 7th), Katie Robinson of Youth Defence seems to be one of those people who sees democracy only in terms of the will and dominance of the majority. But majorities can be just as tyrannical as the worst dictator. That is why the free world operates a system of constitutional democracy, which has other elements in the mix, such as parliamentary representation and a constitution that guarantees the rights, not only of minorities, but of the individual. By failing to legislate for abortion, our politicians have manifestly failed to uphold this principle, not least for the many thousands of women who have been and are obliged to travel abroad, year after year after year, in order to have their terminations. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Senator Ivana Bacik (Opinion Analysis, February 6th) is incorrect in her analysis of why the then government in 2002 introduced the 25th amendment to the Constitution. Senator Bacik writes that “a cowardly government caved in again to pressure from anti-abortion groups and held another referendum to rule out suicide risk”.
This was not the case. In 2002, the then Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat government introduced the proposed 25th amendment to the Constitution not because of pressure from anti-abortion groups, but because they had promised to do so in their election campaigns. This was one of those rare occasions when our elected representatives actually carried through on an election promise.
The 25th amendment was strongly opposed by the anti-abortion groups, including Spuc and Youth Defence.
How could Senator Bacik accuse the then government of introducing an amendment under pressure from anti-abortion groups, when those very same anti-abortion groups campaigned against the amendment? Why did Senator Bacik not mention these facts in her article?
The then government took the practical step of introducing a referendum that the largest party in that government, Fianna Fáil, could campaign for a Yes vote on. This was not the politically expedient option.
Senator Bacik might not agree with the Fianna Fáil stance on the 25th amendment (I did not either), but it was not cowardly, and it was very clear to the people where the party stood on the issue.
Ireland is ill-served by politicians who do not make their positions on abortion absolutely clear, whichever side of the debate they are on. – Yours, etc,