Press Releases
STATEMENT BY BISHOP PAUL COLTON, BISHOP OF CORK,CLOYNE AND ROSS, ON THE ABORTION REFERENDUM
The current Abortion debate in Ireland is undoubtedly emotive. Rather than unanimity, we see a spectrum of nuanced preferences in response to the Government's proposed Constitutional Amendment.
There needs to be some acknowledgement, however, by us individually and in the churches that in any human community no one person can expect to have “everything his or her own way” on such matters. To expect, for example, that the Church’s view would be wholeheartedly embraced in the proposals (or those of any other single group in society for that matter) would be untenable in a pluralist society.
The search for consensus on a majority middle ground between two ends of a polarised spectrum (those who oppose abortion on principle and those who are pro-choice) is an unenviable task, but, I believe, a creditable strategy.
The Government is, therefore, to be commended for its endeavour to put forward a balance of measures based on a consensus approach, following the publication of its Green Paper in 1999 and the subsequent consultation by the All-Party Oireachtas Committee (which included submissions from the Church of Ireland).
I am surprised, however, at the apparent lack of recognition on the part of some in the Church of Ireland that the proposals to come before the people on 6th March espouse at least some of the core elements in the Church of Ireland’s diversity of opinion on this issue.
In my view, the legislation envisaged in the referendum proposal offers, in a number of respects, what the Church of Ireland appealed for in its submission to the All Party Committee. A case in point is the call for “…a clear and unambiguous definition of abortion.” The inclusion of detailed legislation (albeit enshrined in the Constitution) also goes some way to addressing the Church of Ireland’s preference for a legislative approach to this issue.
More important, the fundamental presupposition in the referendum proposal, that “…the life of the unborn in the womb shall be protected in accordance with the provisions of the Protection of Human Life in Pregnancy Act, 2002” reflects the view put forward in a working document of the Role of the Church Committee in 1998 to the effect that “[t]he deliberate termination of an intra uterine life cannot be right…” and in its submission to the All-Party Committee: “we are totally agreed in our opposition to abortion on demand.”
Where the Referendum proposal departs from the widely articulated Church of Ireland position is in two main areas: first, the preference for a legislative route alone to be adopted; and second, in its narrow delineation of the exceptional circumstances which ought to be catered for.
The Church's continued insistence on its preference for a legislative approach to this issue fails to recognise that the argument has moved on. The Constitution (since 1983 and 1992) already contains provisions relating to abortion and we need to work within the context of what is, not what might have been. The option of removing references to abortion from the Constitution is not one currently before the people. In relation to the delineation of exceptions, there would appear to be no clear agreement on the part of members of the Church of Ireland.
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