Ireland debating new law to allow limited abortions

Associated Press

DUBLIN, Ireland — Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern on Tuesday reopened one of the most divisive arguments in this predominantly Roman Catholic country — when, if ever, doctors should be allowed to perform abortions.

After nearly a decade of political debate and delay, Ahern published the Human Life and Pregnancy Bill, which, if approved, would allow doctors to terminate pregnancies when women’s lives are at risk.

Ahern said the bill was designed to reconcile conflicting demands in the country’s constitution, which bars all abortions, and a 1992 Supreme Court judgment that an abortion should be permitted when a woman might otherwise die.

Ahern expressed confidence he would win cross-party support from lawmakers by December. But before it could become law, the measure would need majority support in a public referendum, probably next spring. The legislation must go to a public vote because it proposes a change to the constitution.

He appealed for voters on both sides of the debate to "be informed by a spirit of reason, tolerance and open-mindedness."

The proposed law would allow doctors to terminate pregnancies if the woman’s life was considered at risk, except in instances of threatened suicide.

Suicide threats were accepted as sufficient grounds in the 1992 judgment, which involved a 14-year-old rape victim who had been barred from traveling to Britain for an abortion. The girl ultimately suffered a miscarriage.

Tuesday’s bill also would legalize the so-called morning after pill, taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy. Women seeking the pills now have to order them from Northern Ireland or Britain.

The bill also proposed creating a new government-financed crisis pregnancy agency that Ahern said would offer "caring, practical intervention" in hopes of reducing the number of women who travel to Britain for abortions, which is about 6,500 a year.

Anti-abortion activists and Ireland’s main opposition party, Fine Gael, gave Ahern’s package a guarded welcome. Those seeking a more liberal abortion law, including the left-of-center Labor Party, said they were disappointed.

"This does nothing to address the reality of abortion in Ireland," said Sinead Kennedy, spokeswoman for the group Abortion Reform. "It’s not going to offer the women who travel to Britain any real option. Women are perfectly capable of making the decision whether to have a child, and they should be facilitated in their own country."