Press Releases
STATEMENT BY BISHOP JOHN NEILL, BISHOP OF CASHEL & OSSORY ON THE ABORTION REFERENDUM
In a Diocesan Synod address last autumn, I enunciated some of the principles that the Church of Ireland has set forth in relation to the issue of abortion, and whilst expressing some reservations about the current proposal for Constitutional change, I promised to give it a great deal further thought. I have now done this.
I wish personally to make two general and to me fundamental points about abortion:
a) Abortion is not a matter for merely individual choice, nor is it an easy option in any circumstance.
b) Abortion may, and frequently does, create as many problems as it purports to solve.
However I am opposed to the proposed Amendment to the Constitution for three reasons:
- To amend the Constitution and to tie legislation to such an amendment which in itself has not gained anything like general support is irresponsible. The proposed legislation may prove seriously flawed. The position of the Church of Ireland over the years has been that this matter should be the subject of legislation and not Constitutional enactment. Already we have seen that psychiatrists differ as to the validity of the threat of suicide as a ground for abortion. However to criminalize those who would follow one particular option in this debate is both cruel and naïve. Legislation can develop in the light of experience and further insights, but the Constitution does not have this flexibility.
- The close link between body and mind, between the physical and the psychological is fundamental to the Christian understanding of a human being and to a holistic understanding of medical practice. To rule out the threat of suicide as a possible grounds for abortion is possibly to fail to accept the reality of mental disturbance as a medical condition, and in fact could be seen as reflecting something of the archaic stigmatisation of mental illness.
- There is a serious hypocrisy in seeing “the right to travel” as a solution for difficult cases. It is a refusal to face our own problems and implies instead that the more difficult issues can be dealt with in another jurisdiction. But more serious than this proposed political expediency is its effect. The failure to face these issues with total honesty simply makes the solution of “the boat to England” more likely. The proposals will do nothing to stem the flow of young women to abortion clinics overseas far removed from the medical and pastoral help that they should receive.
+ John Cashel & Ossory
The Palace, Kilkenny
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