Doctors differ and patients fly.
This was the one indisputable fact from day two of the second round of Oireachtas hearings into the proposed abortion legislation.
Two groups of psychiatrists appeared before the Oireachtas health committee and presented differing views. But to the thousands of women who leave Ireland every year to have abortions abroad, it won’t matter a whit which way the argument went yesterday.
There are a lot of headings in the draft Bill. But the debate has crystallised over one issue: the threat to a mother’s life where there is a risk of suicide.
During both sets of hearings, it has been interesting to watch the dynamic at work among the politicians. Apart from the committee members, who get to question the witnesses first, non-committee members are also allowed time to contribute to the discussion.
The Seanad chamber has become a battleground, with one distinct cross-party group trying to hold the line against what they see as an attempt to introduce a liberal abortion system to Ireland by stealth.
As they see it, the weak link is the suicide clause.
They have been hammering away at it, asking the lion’s share of the questions.
The most vocal and high-profile are Fine Gael's Terence Flanagan, Peter Mathews, Paul Bradford, Billy Timmins, and Fidelma Healy Eames; Fianna Fáil's Robert Troy and Jim Walsh; Independent TD Mattie McGrath; and Independent Senator Rónán Mullen.
Armed with sheafs of paper
They tic-tac with each other, constantly consult their smartphones and come armed with sheafs of paper. They often sit together in the canteen during breaks. They are the ones who quote statistics and research papers and who have more than a passing acquaintance with the abortion law passed in California in 1967.
Fine Gael's Bernard Durkan pointed out that what happens in other countries has no bearing here, as we have a written Constitution that may be changed only by referendum.
To an outsider it would seem like the vast majority of politicians in Leinster House are vehemently against this draft legislation and would prefer a return to the way things were before the referendums and X-case ruling.
In reality, the majority are simply giving the hearing a wide berth.
“We could sit in there for the next six months and nothing would change. There are people on both sides who have made their minds up about abortion and no amount of hearings and expert witnesses will make a difference,” a Fianna Fáil TD told us. “It’s headwrecking.”
So the middle ground remains mute, preferring to let the argument rage without it.
There has been a lot of talk. And then some. Chairman Jerry Buttimer has been meticulous in his conduct of the exchanges, often under some duress from the more impassioned elements of the anti-abortion politicians.
The obstetricians had their say last Friday. It was the turn of the psychiatrists yesterday. Two groups taken in two sessions, espousing two different points of view. Both had a free run.
There were references to the “poor girls” who exercise their legal right to travel. As Peter Mathews put it, they get an abortion abroad through “fear or coercion” even though those feelings might be “imagined”.
Ironically, it is the poor girls and women – but not the ones sorrowfully instanced by Deputy Mathews – who are affected the most by these laws. They are not poor because Peter has pity for them, but because they don’t have the money to hop on a plane to England.
Ability to travel
Dr Peadar O'Grady, a member of the Doctors for Choice group, pointed out that "restricted access to abortion here is to do with ability to travel".
The committee was told by the first group that the legislation ultimately concerns those women who are too young, too sick, too disabled or too poor to get on a plane and leave the jurisdiction.
The second group said they should be minded and treated until they have their babies. But the how and the where wasn’t really addressed, which was unsettling.
It was a full two hours before the famous floodgates were mentioned, courtesy of Senator Fidelma Healy Eames, with an interesting take on how the pregnant women of Ireland will surf in their thousands through those gates on a wave of phony suicidal intent.
Offer them an abortion, but only if they can prove they want to kill themselves. It’s an attractive proposition apparently.
It would be like, she posited, offering people 50 per cent off their mortgages if they can prove they are suicidal.
Sure you’d be mad not to chance your arm.
The first group was concerned by the attitude of some politicians towards it. "I don't think people would be asking the obstetricians how they do their job," said Dr Joanne Fenton, stressing, along with her colleagues, that they are experts and are neither foolish nor naive when it comes to assessing women who may be suicidal. There were objections to the portrayal of women as "manipulative" or "passive".
In the afternoon, Dr Seán Ó Domhnaill said abortion had no place in modern medicine. It’s “a medieval practice”. Senator Healy Eames was “inclined to agree”.
Senator Mullen mused about “finding the cohort of women who say they will commit suicide” but aren’t mentally ill.
On and on it went.
And for the thousands of Irish citizens who vote with their foetus and take the aircraft, nothing changes. Doctors differ and patients fly.
