A strong view in favour of repealing or amending the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution began to emerge at the Citizens’ Assembly on Sunday.
In a closing session after two days of discussion on article 40.3.3, which bans abortion in the State in all but very limited circumstances, the assembly heard that opinion among the 99 citizen members is trending clearly against the status quo.
After the second of five weekends of discussion on the abortion issue, under the chairmanship of Supreme Court judge Mary Laffoy, assembly members at the meeting in Malahide, Co Dublin were given a number of "conversation-starting" questions. The first asked if "the right to life of the unborn child should continue to be constitutionally protected in the same way as now".
In response, facilitators at 10 of the 14 tables in the room said the view of their group was “no”. Two groups said “yes”, but both indicated they were in favour of a more liberal constitutional regime. The remaining two did not express a clear opinion either way.
It was not clear in most cases whether those were the unanimous or majority views of each table.
X case
Members were also asked: “Do you think that the X case and the 2013 Act make abortion lawfully available in
Ireland
in too many circumstances?” This was referring to the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, which, acting on a 1992 Supreme Court decision in the so-called X case, set out in law the limited circumstances in which a risk to the life of a pregnant woman would make abortion legal.
In response to this question, seven tables said “no” and none said “yes”. The remaining seven did not say yes or no. But of those seven tables, facilitators at five of them conveyed views suggesting they believed the current regime was too restrictive.
For example, one table said the 2013 Act was “non-functioning”, while another said “society has changed and the law should reflect that”. Another of these tables said “abortion is happening anyway”, according to one facilitator. Again, it was unclear in most cases whether these views reflected unanimous or majority opinion within each group.
Finally, members were asked if they thought “abortion should be lawfully available in Ireland in more circumstances than is currently the case”. To this, nine of the 14 tables responded “yes” and none said “no”. Of the five that gave no explicit response, two expressed opinions that suggested they were leaning towards “yes”.
The responses to all three questions are not binding in any way.
Legal regime
Less clear was where members stood on a legal regime to replace the Eighth Amendment as it currently stands. Almost all groups requested briefings on specific topics at future assembly meetings.
A number sought presentations from medical professionals and women who had travelled abroad for abortions, with one specifically asking that briefings from medics be prioritised over those from advocacy groups. Others asked for additional information on the abortion regimes in the Netherlands, Poland and the UK so that, as one facilitator put it, "we can avoid the mistakes they have made".
Expanding on members’ views at one table, a facilitator said there was “general agreement” on the need for change, “but disagreement on the level of change”. That table and others wished to know what legislation would be enacted in the event that the Eighth Amendment was repealed, with one group concerned about a post-repeal “vacuum”.
Closing the weekend session, Ms Justice Laffoy said that, in view of the large amount of material to be dealt with, they would set aside one extra weekend to discuss abortion, bringing to five the number of weekend sessions devoted to the issue.
“By taking one further weekend, I am confident we will be best placed to reach our conclusions. This additional weekend will not affect my commitment to complete the report in respect of the Eighth Amendment within the first half of 2017,” Ms Justice Laffoy said.
Care paths
A draft work programme agreed at the weekend includes sessions on the medical and care paths for women in the case of rape; the current availability of legal terminations in other jurisdictions; crisis pregnancy for vulnerable groups in Irish society; discussion on submissions received to date; first-hand experiences; and presentations from advocacy groups.
The assembly plans to dedicate the fifth weekend, April 22nd-23rd, to considering the recommendations to be made to the Oireachtas.
Ms Justice Laffoy said the assembly had received 13,500 submissions on the Eighth Amendment by its closing date last month – a huge response that demonstrated, the judge said, “the high level of public engagement with the issue”.
