THE GOVERNMENT’S ARGUMENT THAT ABORTION IS NECESSARY TO TREAT THREATENED SUICIDE IN PREGNANCY WAS DEMOLISHED AT THE RECENT OIREACHTAS HEARINGS ON ABORTION. THE PSYCHIATRISTS WHO ADDRESSED THE HEARINGS WERE UNANIMOUS THAT ABORTION IS NOT A TREATMENT FOR SUICIDAL IDEATION. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER THAT ABORTION REDUCES THE MENTAL HEALTH RISKS OF UNPLANNED PREGNANCY. BUT THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT ABORTION INCREASES THE RISK OF FUTURE MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS FOR A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF WOMEN. IF THE GOVERNMENT LEGISLATES FOR ABORTION ON THE BASIS OF THE X CASE, IT WOULD CURE NO WOMAN OF SUICIDAL IDEATION, BUT IT WOULD PUT SOME WOMEN'S LIVES AT RISK. IF WE ARE SERIOUS ABOUT PROTECTING THE LIVES OF WOMEN AND BABIES IN PREGNANCY, WE CANNOT INTRODUCE A LAW THAT DIRECTLY TARGETS THE LIFE OF THE UNBORN CHILD AND PUTS WOMEN’S LIVES AT RISK.
VIOLATING THE MOST BASIC HUMAN RIGHT Legislation based on the X case would mean that for the first time, psychiatrists would be asked to propose a procedure for which there is no psychiatric justification. For the first time, obstetricians would be asked to terminate the lives of babies in physically-healthy women. Likewise, for the first time, legislators would be violating the most basic human right of an innocent unborn child. Laws shape public values. If X legislation were passed, society would see the right to life of the unborn as not that important – after all, we would not be really serious about protecting it - the lives of unborn babies would be ended on an entirely irrational and unjustifiable basis. Soon this would become the general view, replacing our culture of life with a culture of abortion.
WHY LEGISLATING FOR THE X CASE WOULD LEAD TO WIDE-RANGING ABORTION Claims by senior Government Ministers that legislation based on the X case would be extremely restrictive do not stand up. It cannot be and would not be. Any legislation based on the X case ruling would mean that Members of the Oireachtas would be sanctioning and legitimising the taking of innocent human life. Once the principle is conceded that some human lives can be directly targeted, there is no going back. Inevitably over time the grounds for abortion would be widened. The reality is that the X case ruling does not impose any duty of care to preserve the life of the baby in the course of medical interventions to safeguard the life of the mother. No medical evidence whatsoever was heard in the case. And in the twenty years since the X ruling, medical research, far from confirming that abortion helps women with mental health problems, has failed to find any benefit to women from abortion. Many peer-reviewed studies, however, indicate that abortion exposes women to significant negative after-effects. Despite hundreds of thousands of abortions annually on mental health grounds in Britain, there is no evidence that abortion improves the mental health of women. As Professor David Fergusson comments in the conclusion to his 2008 study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry: “In general, there is no evidence in the literature on abortion and mental health that suggests that abortion reduces the mental health risks of unwanted or mistimed pregnancy. Although some studies have concluded that abortion has neutral effects on mental health, no study has reported that exposure to abortion reduces mental health risks.” 1
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