GRSJ224/RepealThe8th

History

The Formation of the Amendment

On May 25th, 2018 the Republic of Ireland made a progressive move by voting to repeal the 8th Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland. Historically, Ireland has had some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. Through the 1960s-70s there was a major movement towards liberalizing the restrictions on abortions. In 1974, in the case of McGee v The Attorney General, the Supreme Court of Ireland ruled that individuals had the right to marital privacy that extended to the importation of contraceptives. Through the utilization of political influence, the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign, established in 1981, was able to lobby the leaders of major political parties, namely the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gaeland. When the Fianna Fáil minority government were in power in 1982, the wording for the Amendment was manifested. However, Charlie Haughey’s Fianna Fáil government was soon replaced by Garret Fitzgerald’s Fine Gael in coalition with the Labour Party. The Bill for the 8^th Amendment of the Constitution passed by a vote of 85 to 11 in the Dáil, and by 14 votes to 6 in the Seanad resulting in a referendum. There was a 53.7% turnout for the referendum, which resulted in 66.7% of voters in favor of the amendment, leading to the implementation of the following text into the Constitution of Ireland under the 8th Amendment and Article 40 Section 3 Subsection 3:

“The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”

The X Case

In 1992 a14-year-old girl was raped and became pregnant. She planned to go to England to get an abortion as it was legal in the UK, in tandem with the fact that the pregnancy (as the result of rape) was making her extremely susceptible to suicide, thus endangering the life of the mother. Her parents were in contact with the Irish Gardai about their intentions and the issue reached the Attorney General, who thought it proper to take the case to the High Court in order to prohibit the girl from traveling to England with the objective of getting an abortion. The High Court acknowledged that the life of the mother was threatened by suicide while the life of the fetus was also threatened by abortion. The High Court decided to forbid the girl from traveling to England to get an abortion, a decision that was reversed by the Supreme Court ruling that abortion was to be permitted where there was a substantial risk to the mother’s life, including suicide, that could only be prevented by an abortion. As the result, two more additions to the constitution were adopted, namely Amendment 13 and 14, which read respectively:

Relating to the text of the 8th Amendment:

“This subsection shall not limit freedom to travel between the State and another state.”

“This subsection shall not limit freedom to obtain or make available, in the State, subject to such conditions as may be laid down by law, information relating to services lawfully available in another state.”

Savita Halappanavar and the Repeal of the 8th Amendment

Savita Halappanavar, a dentist living in Galway, died as the result of a blood infection caused by a miscarriage. She was denied an abortion at a medical center because, as the nurse stated “we are unable to perform an abortion because Ireland is a Catholic state.”Her death demonstrated the necessity for legislation to protect the life of the mother since the post X case changes failed to do so. The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act introduced by the Fine Gael government replaced the Offences Against the Person’s Act. The legislation made it legal to have an abortion under limited circumstances, where the mother’s life was in physical danger as judged by two medical practitioners, or at risk of suicide as judged by three medical practitioners, including two psychiatrists. Since then major movements from the pro-choice campaign led to the establishment of the Citizens’ Assembly under the leadership of Supreme Court judge Mary Laffoy, as well as support for a referendum by many medical professionals and political parties. The Oireachtas Committee on the 8th Amendment analyzed the issue and also suggested for a referendum to be held. On May 25th, 2018 Ireland voted by a margin of 66.4% for repeal to 33.6% against with a record turnout of 64.51% to replace the 8th amendment with the text of the 36th Amendment that read:

“Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.”

Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice and the Significance of Repealing the 8th

The Debate and Significance of the Repeal

The debate on abortion, especially in Ireland, revolves around the rights of the mother versus the rights of the unborn. The pro-choice arguments include the right for women to choose what they do with their own body, the wide spectrum of reasons for wanting/needing an abortion, and the concern over access to safe abortion. In places where abortion is prohibited or heavily restricted, many women end up getting abortions from private, unsafe sources with disastrous health consequences for the mothers. Many pro-life representatives lean conservative and are heavily influenced by religious doctrine, though the opinion on this issue varies across the entire political spectrum. The pro-life ideology argues that the unborn has a right to life and is not given a voice in the predicament. Furthermore, they argue that there are many psychological and physical health issues that arise as the result of abortion, most of which have been refuted by medical professionals. In fact, abortion is in most cases much safer than childbirth. While abortion is mentioned in several sacred texts, many nations who are predominantly religious have allowed for liberalization of abortion laws. By repealing the 8th Amendment of their constitution, Ireland has shown an example to follow in that religion can progress with the rest of society and not remain static.

Intersectional Analysis

Since the current state of legislation regarding abortion in Ireland is extremely restrictive, it is important to assess the effects and demographics of those effects within the population. The restrictions on abortion are universal, however the results of those restrictions differ among individuals and groups. The lack of access to abortion in Ireland means that many women are forced to travel to different places to receive the procedure. The majority of those women get their abortions in England or Wales. It is estimated that at least 173,308 women and girls traveled out of the Republic of Ireland to receive an abortion in a different country between January 1980 and December 2017. This number is distributed among all the different age groups and economic status. The journey is burdensome in financial, physical, and physiological terms. Thus, women of lower financial status are less likely to travel abroad to get an abortion. In addition, asylum seekers and immigrants whose travel abilities are restricted by their residency status are even further restrained from receiving medical assistance abroad. Teenagers who seek abortions are confined by stigma and lack of finances, while the rural population has less access to information about how to approach the issue. Physical and mental health also play a major role in limiting people’s ability to deal with the situation because traveling to another country is difficult. In many cases, the Irish hospitals are reluctant to provide other countries with medical history of their patients. Inferring from the evidence above there are different limitations that people face when seeking to find a solution to unwanted pregnancies distributed based on financial status, age groups, residency, geographical locations, and mental or physical health. To avoid dangerous, illegal abortion procedures it is imperative to legalize abortion and provide proper healthcare services to those who require it.