A group supporting the legalisation of abortion in Ireland was inaugurated in Dublin yesterday. Abortion Reform claims to speak for a new "middle ground" which has not previously been represented in the debate.
Its spokeswoman, a Limerick University law lecturer, Ms Anne Marlborough, said that the group did not intend to enter the abortion "battleground". Abortion Reform says that the minimum it is seeking is legislation to allow for abortion within the parameters of the X case. But, ideally, it would like to see abortion available on a need basis under the General Medical Scheme.
"We want the needs of women in relation to abortion acknowledged and for abortion to be taken out of the legal field into the medical field", Ms Marlborough said.
She continued: "We have rhetoric dominating the debate while individual women are silent as they quietly and miserably leave their homes for the abortions they need. We don't hear their voices, we are unaware of their experience."
In its submission on the Green Paper on Abortion to the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, Abortion Re form puts forward two sets of preferences: one for a situation where the Constitution would be amended and the other where there would be no further amendment to the Constitution.
In a situation where there would be no further constitutional amendment, Abortion Reform supports the introduction of legislation to implement the X case, allowing doctors to carry out abortions where continuation of pregnancy poses a real and substantial risk to the life of a woman.
In a situation where there would be a change to the Constitution, the group said that it would favour a multi-option vote (preferendum) putting forward a number of choices for reform, including an option to extend the grounds for legal abortion beyond the X case.
In such a preferendum, Abortion Reform would call for the repeal of Article 40.3.3 and its replacement by legislation legalising abortion.
The group is totally opposed to a number of the seven options on abortion outlined in the Green Paper, including the option for an absolute constitutional ban on abortion; a restriction of the application of the X case; and retention of the constitutional status quo. It wants to create an environment in which abortion can be discussed calmly and responsibly and aims to promote a better understanding of abortion in the Irish context.
Some 13 groups and about 80 individuals are affiliated to the campaign. They include the Dublin Abortion Rights Group; Trinity College Students' Union; the Labour Society in Trinity College; Catholics for a Free Choice; the Women's Education Research Resource Centre in UCD; the Cork branch of the Women's Political Association; the Irish Family Planning Association; the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network; the Women's Human Rights Campaign; Lawyers for Choice; the Gender and Law Group of Keele University in England; and the Irish Abortion Support Campaign in London.
The two convenors of the group are a Trinity law lecturer, Ms Ivana Bacik, and Ms Ursula Barry of UCD.