During the course of the abortion debate there have been frequent calls on us to have a calm and rational debate and to keep it emotion-free.

Despite this we have had leading commentators like Olivia O’Leary comparing Ireland with its pro-life laws to the Taliban’s Afghanistan and then in yesterday’s Irish Times we had an appalling cartoon in a similar vein from Martyn Turner.

The cartoon (obviously not the cartoon on the right!) was prompted by the kidnapping for ten years of the three young women in Cleveland, Ohio.

It showed a very similar house to the one the women were kept in. Two women in the cartoon are seen fleeing from the house, one named ‘divorce’ and the other ‘contraception’.

Still imprisoned in the house is a third woman who symbolises our restrictions on abortion.

Her captors are a priest and a generic pro-life supporter.

The caption to the cartoon reads: ‘Three women(‘s issues) held hostage in Ireland for decades. Two have escaped so far.’

So Turner seems to think it fit and appropriate to compare Catholics and pro-life people generally with the kidnapper and presumed rapist of the three women in Ohio.

What happened to those calls for a ‘calm’, ‘rational’ debate and why did The Irish Times see fit to publish such a cartoon?

The cartoon also shows two little characters down at the bottom of it having a chat. One says to the other, ‘They said the fabric of Irish society would be destroyed’. Turner is inviting us to believe that nothing of the sort happened.

The appalling tone of the cartoon is one thing. But there is also a huge problem with its underlying world-view.

First, it assumes that abortion, divorce and contraception are women’s issues specifically and women were (and are trapped) without access to all three.

Secondly, it overlooks the consequences of liberalisation in all three areas.

Why are they women’s issues per se? Men also want to use contraception, get divorced and abort their children.

In fact, all of the above allow men to be as ‘unencumbered’ and free as they please. Contraception gives them easy access to no-strings-attached-sex. Divorce allows them to ditch a wife for a new wife. Abortion is the ultimate way to escape their responsibilities.

Women are frequently the victims of all three of these ‘freedoms’. Sometimes no-strings-attached-sex will still lead to a pregnancy. When it does, and the father isn’t interested, the mother is literally left holding the baby. This is the biggest single contributor to the huge rise in the number of births outside marriage.

When she doesn’t want the baby herself, then the baby is aborted.

She might also find herself divorced against her will.

As mentioned, Turner has one of his characters declaring that the ‘fabric of society will be destroyed’. It has certainly been badly torn.

Twenty-eight percent of children under 18 are now raised outside marriage, usually without a father living with them.

More than a third of births are outside marriage.

There are a quarter of a million divorced or separated adults.

Tens of thousands of Irish babies have been aborted over the years even without legalised abortion here. How many more would be aborted if it was available here?

So apart from the incredibly nasty tone of Turner’s cartoon, its view of the world is, well, cartoonish.