Eighth Amendment had '˜seeds of its own destruction': pro-life ex-SDLP leader

A strongly pro-life ex-leader of the SDLP has that said the Eighth Amendment had contained 'the seeds of its own destruction' by acting as an inflexible bar to all abortions.
People celebrate in Dublin Castle on Saturday after voters opted to repeal the Eighth AmendmentPeople celebrate in Dublin Castle on Saturday after voters opted to repeal the Eighth Amendment
People celebrate in Dublin Castle on Saturday after voters opted to repeal the Eighth Amendment

Alasdair McDonnell told the News Letter the wording of that clause in the Irish constitution denied any “breathing space” to medical professionals who may have to deal with extreme dilemmas, making its downfall “inevitable”.

Dr McDonnell – a long-serving medical doctor who led the SDLP from 2011 to 2015 – stressed today he is “very, very robustly pro-life, I make no apology for it”.

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He also said when it comes to the SDLP “the vast majority of the rank and file members are very robustly pro-life” too.

He was speaking after the Republic of Ireland voted on Friday 66.4% to 33.6% in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment of the constitution, which said the lives of expectant mothers and their unborn children were to be treated as equal – essentially banning terminations.

The Irish government had pledged to introduce a law allowing unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks if the Eighth Amendment was repealed, and abortion in exceptional circumstances up to 24 weeks.

“The Eighth Amendment had the seeds of its own destruction in itself because it was too absolute,” Dr McDonnell said.

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He said it should have been “much more subtle” when it was drafted in 1983, adding: “I felt it was inevitable it was going to go.”

He cited exceptional situations such as fatal foetal abnormalities, as well as medical staff intervening in a conflict between the life of the mother and the child she is carrying.

He said medical staff should be allowed “breathing space” around such matters.

The latter issue came to a head in Ireland in 2012 with the death of dentist Savita Halappanavar, who was declined an termination during a miscarriage and subsequently died – with abortion campaigners blaming the tragedy on strict anti-abortion laws.

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Though a law was passed the following year, clarifying that terminations could in fact be permitted if a woman’s life was in danger, the case had already spurred large numbers of people to press for a wholesale relaxation of the law.

Dr McDonnell added: “I feel that the change in the south does have an indirect impact on the situation in the north, and it puts further pressure on our very robust pro-life position in the north.

“But the dilemma is we don’t really know exactly what it means in the south until the legislation is produced – the referendum in the south only removed the Eighth Amendment.”

The wording of the Eighth Amendment, which was inserted into the constitution after a referendum in which 66.9% of voters approved it, read: “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.”

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A statement from the People Before Profit party’s spokeswoman on the issue Goretti Horgan, an Ulster University academic, said the campaign to repeal it had won despite “vicious lies and intimidation from Catholic bishop’s [sic] and the Orange Order”.

She added that “from LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning] marriage equality, to a woman’s right to decide, Ireland is a changed country”.

She also described the party – which has designated as neither ‘unionist’ nor ‘nationalist’ in the Stormont Assembly – as being “a pro-choice 32 county socialist party”.