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An Irish obstetrician has disputed the claim that legalised abortion is needed to save the lives of Irish women. Dr Alistair McFarlane was responding to an article in The Irish Times by Niall Behan, head of the Irish Family Planning Association. He pointed out that Behan had not given any examples of “life-saving abortions”. He also questioned the abortion advocate’s use of the words ‘right’ and ‘abortion’. “I suggest that right is better used as an adjective in all cases where one is claiming the need for some change. Then one would have to say why it is right. Those who use it as a noun are dodging that question by saying that there is a ‘right’ and now no reason needs to be given.”
 
The doctor explained that the word abortion is used differently now from when he began working as an obstetrician/gynaecologist in Ireland 38 years ago. “Then it was a medical term meaning a miscarriage, but with the vast growth of abortion on demand in Britain, we had to talk about miscarriages instead and abortion, for most people, now refers to what goes on over there.” Describing how Irish doctors currently care for pregnant women in need of life-saving treatment, Dr McFarlane explained that “the point is that if the woman’s life is in genuine danger, then the unfortunate very young human being inside her is also doomed and cannot be saved. If we end the pregnancy in such situations, it would be absurd to use the word abortion. Doctors are not legally obliged to do the impossible. For example I have operated on a case of ectopic pregnancy where the patient was bleeding internally and yet I could see a foetal heart-beat on the scan before I operated. It was not illegal to save her life and any doctor in this situation will have done the same. I did not need legislation to enable me to operate.”
 
So do we need ‘legislation’?, the doctor asked. “I do not think so and the absence of any campaign from my fellow gynaecologists in Ireland suggests that the majority would think similarly. We must all be suspicious that Niall Behan is seeking legislation to start a process leading to the horrors of the abortion-on- demand situation in Britain.”
 
In a letter which The Irish Times declined to publish, Family & Life pointed out that Niall Behan had misrepresented the task of the expert group on abortion. Its terms of reference require the group to examine the ECHR ruling, to elucidate its implications, and to present to the government the range of options available to it. It is not charged with drafting legislation or medical guidelines.
 
The European Court did not, as Mr Behan claims, “reaffirm” the Supreme Court’s decision in the X case, it merely recognised that this decision remains the Supreme Court’s guiding interpretation of Article 40.3.3 of the Irish Constitution. The European Court acknowledged that Ireland is free to prohibit or restrict abortion; it only required that the state provide clarity on what is and is not permitted.
 
There is no evidence that Irish women are denied life-saving medical attention during pregnancy. Mr Behan’s organisation very readily proposes induced abortion as a solution, when it is neither necessary nor beneficial to the woman concerned. The vast majority of women assisted to obtain foreign abortions by the IFPA seek them for reasons other than health-related, as Mr Behan admits. So these are healthy women aborting healthy babies, whose right to life enjoys constitutional protection.
 
The expert group is likely to find that the X case casts a long shadow over its work, but not for the reason Mr Behan suggests. The reason that no government has yet introduced legislation in line with this judgement is that it is so deeply flawed. In formulating its judgement, the Supreme Court heard no medical evidence and its ruling is cast in terms that permit none of the restrictions that even liberal abortion laws in other jurisdictions demand. Mr Behan and the IFPA may not balk at the prospect of abortion on demand up to birth, but their extreme position is shared by only a tiny percentage of the population.
 
Once the expert group has discharged its task, it will be for the government to decide what to do next. This decision will be made in light of a commitment given by Fine Gael before the last election, “that women in pregnancy will receive whatever treatments are necessary to safeguard their lives, and that the duty of care to preserve the life of the baby will also be upheld.” The party clearly stated that it is opposed to the legalisation of abortion. 
The Irish Times. January 19. Family & Life. January 17.