Problems could be looming for abortion referendum

It repeals the eighth amendment which outlawed abortion except in the strictest of circumstances and the apparent joy of the yes voters followed by the carnival atmosphere in the state was something to behold.

I am not anti-abortion but the rejoicing upset me and it made me wonder did the young women in particular stop to think about the problems that could lie ahead because, believe me, some of them could be very disappointed indeed to wake up one day and realise that all is not as it seems when it comes to aborting a foetus which, though still not a viable child at 12 weeks, is more than ‘just a collection of cells, nothing really’ as I once heard it described. Do the young in particular see the move as their right to have sex without the consequences or the need for contraception?

If this is the case then what happens when they become pregnant and don’t realise it because that can happen? Women have been known to have been pregnant for months and not realised it. By then it will be too late for abortion.

Who decides what constitutes 12 weeks and where does that period end? Is it the last day or hour of the 12 weeks? Will the legislation give any margin for error if the woman realises she’s passed the deadline? The way ahead could be fraught.

The ability to create and produce a child is a great privilege but I can’t help feeling that for many of those yes voters it is just a nuisance that women have to put up with.

`We’ve got our right to choose’ screeched one lot of happy voters. Choose what I wondered? An unwanted pregnancy was the curse of our mothers and grandmothers.

Huge families were the result with little money to feed them. Many unwanted children ended up in orphanages or worse, the notorious homes run by the Catholic church, the horrors of which are still unfolding.

The British need not feel proud of their record of child care, despatching children off to Australia and a life of hardship many of them being told their parents were dead or didn’t want them. History in fact is littered with cruelty to children and those born outside marriages had little chance of long life. Abortion legislation in the UK in the 50s, plus the introduction of the contraceptive pill changed life for British women.

In the south of Ireland the pill was viewed as the devil incarnate by the church, so much so that Catholic pharmacies wouldn’t even stock it in the north.

I’d like to think that every child is wanted and that pregnancy is a privilege but I have to accept that it can also be an unwanted burden.

And whilst the Brits long ago stopped sending the unwanted to Australia there are children in all corners of the world still who live miserable lives begging for food and sexually abused by predators of all kinds.

Maybe if women in those countries had access to the pill or free abortions at an early stage then these street children would not exist.

The Catholic church’s archaic attitude to birth control has not helped the situation and it wasn’t surprising that they raised their objections during this Irish referendum and are even threatening to refuse to marry those who have backed abortion.

Respected commentator Malachi O’Doherty on The Nolan Show this week described the Catholic church as a `hierarchy rather than law makers’. The church is archaic and its record of the sexual abuse of some children by its priests up until recent times reduces its reputation and power still further.

Only last week the Vatican, on behalf of the Pope Francis, told nuns to spend less time poring over social media so they are no longer by distracted by ‘‘noises, news and words’’. That tells us everything we need to know. Even Jesus respected women.

Will we ever see the day when women in the Catholic church get the same rights as men?