Editorial | In step with Ireland on abortion

To social conservatives and commissars of religious fundamentalism who would expropriate a woman's right to her body, Ireland's vote last week to overturn that country's constitutionally sanctioned, near-universal ban of abortion was likely to have been a gut-wrenching blow.

For the outcome of the referendum, and especially the scale of their defeat, would have underlined the fact that projects of moral blackmail are unsustainable over the long run and potentially extensive in their reach. In that regard, proponents of more liberal abortion laws in Jamaica, among whom this newspaper is numbered, can be certain of the inevitability of change. And in the not-too-distant future, we believe.

Ireland, in this regard, is an interesting case study. A country of 4.8 million people, not more than a generation and a half ago it was among Europe's poorest and most socially conservative. Whereas, in Jamaica, evangelical Christians these days, exert disproportionate political influence over socio-cultural issues, in Ireland, Roman Catholicism provides the moral framework for political action.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

Indeed, it was only 40 years ago that contraception could be legally imported into Ireland, and in 1995 that divorce was legalised. Thirty-five years ago, a referendum resulted in a constitutional amendment - overturned last Friday - imposing severe limits on abortion. That plebiscite was born out of concern that the encroachment of European law, as was the case with contraception, would erode already-tough restrictions.

A number of factors have changed in Ireland since then. Scandals have surrounded the Roman Catholic Church over its protection of priests who molested children, as well as young women who had babies out of wedlock. The Church's moral authority has been diminished.

Additionally, Ireland, with rapid economic growth since the 1990s and per-capita GDP of more than US$61,000, has grown wealthy and better educated. It is more sophisticated than the country that voted in the abortion plebiscite of 1983. It is also more socially liberal.

Three years ago, 60 per cent of the voters wanted same-sex marriage legalised. The current prime minister, Leo Varadkar, is biracial, of Irish-Indian descent. He is also gay.

The larger point is that their social and economic evolution has liberated the Irish from Old Testament intimidation by the fire-and-brimstone crowd, and a woman's sense of guilt for having asserted her right of control over her body, inclusive of a decision to terminate a pregnancy. This is so long as it takes place, except in extreme circumstances, before a foetus is viable, done by qualified health professionals and with appropriate counselling. Jamaica's Offences Against the Person Act makes abortion, at any stage and, in any circumstance, illegal, for which a woman can be jailed for life, although it is recognised at common law that a pregnancy may be terminated to save the life of woman.

A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO DECIDE

The moral arbiters and spiritual crusaders will attempt to cling tenaciously to this bit of anachronism, claiming certitude from the recent poll finding that seven of 10 Jamaicans are against changing the law to allow for abortion. But the more important statistic, in our view, is the 70 per cent who say it should be a woman's right to decide on the termination of a pregnancy - not the Government's.

People clearly believe that having an abortion, even if they may not agree with a woman's choice, is, and ought to be, a deeply personal decision, free from intervention by a voyeuristic State.

In any event, while the law may make abortion illegal, the anecdotal evidence suggests that abortion is easily and safely available to better-educated and well-off women who can afford the procedure, while poor women are more likely to be subject to backstreet jobs that leave many with complications. Some of these were likely to be among the 13 per cent of early-pregnancy haemorrhage cases that were last year admitted to the Victoria Jubilee Hospital and suspected to be the result of abortion attempts.

Logic, morality and social justice demand that the Jamaican law be changed.