The Pro-Life Campaign (PLC) has issued a fresh warning on Ireland’s Constitutional protection for the unborn after Taoiseach Enda Kenny refused to be drawn on the question of a referendum on the issue after the next election.
Questioned by reporters on the protective 8th Amendment to the Constitution, Mr Kenny only went so far as to state that he would not commit to repealing the amendment unless he knew with certainty what was to replace it.
Responding to the Taoiseach’s words, Cora Sherlock, the PLC’s deputy chairperson, said that while her group acknowledged “the fact that the Taoiseach is not giving a commitment to dismantle the 8th Amendment, he cannot downplay the significance of the law he introduced on abortion in 2013”. Ms Sherlock was referring to the ‘Protection of Life during Pregnancy’ legislation passed by the Government in the wake of the death of expectant mother Savita Halappanavar.
“Far from being restrictive,” Ms Sherlock said of that legislation, “it allows for abortion in potentially wide-ranging circumstances and was not based on medical evidence.”
Warning that debates on the 8th Amendment have thus far been “one-sided”, Ms Sherlock stressed that once “the public finally gets an opportunity to hear about the positive role that the 8th Amendment has played in protecting human life, support for its retention will become more evident”.
Though the Taoiseach has remained circumspect on the issue of an 8th Amendment referendum, his coalition partners, the Labour Party, has made repeal of the amendment part of its election manifesto. At the same time, the party has entered into a vote transfer pact with Mr Kenny’s Fine Gael party as they face into the next election. The Opposition Fianna Fáil party has already committed to maintaining the 8th Amendment intact.
The PLC has announced that its annual national conference will take place at Dublin’s RDS this October 10.
