CONTRACEPTION BILL: IRELAND WOULD “cease to be one
of the last outposts of moral society” on the removal of the
contraceptives ban, one of many letters of objection sent to taoiseach
Charles Haughey said.
On November 1st, contraceptives became
legally available in Ireland for the first time in 45 years but only on
prescription from a doctor. These regulations enacted the Family
Planning Act 1979, described by Haughey as an “Irish solution to an
Irish problem”.
It sought to meet the Supreme Court’s ruling on the right of married couples to privacy and to appease Catholic Ireland.
A
group of women from Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, wrote of the
“abhorrent inevitable consequences” of the Bill, including that Ireland
would “cease to be one of the last outposts of moral society”, there
would be sales pressure “on our children” backed by the contraceptive
industry and eventually legalised abortion.
The writer, Mary T Geever, recalls former Fine Gael taoiseach Liam Cosgrave as a “man of moral conscience”.
“Would
you want the people of Ireland to remember you as the taoiseach who
introduced contraception, facilitating sin among weak-willed teenagers?”
she wrote, and imposing a financial burden on taxpayers who would have
to finance the treatment of “veneral [sic] disease”.
The letter is
signed by Mrs Mary T Geever, Patricia Moynihan, Nuala Frain and Mary F
Durkin and is accompanied by a petition with 50 signatories, mainly from
Ballaghaderreen
Another objector sent Haughey a blessed miraculous medal.
“Perhaps
you might keep it in your pocket,” wrote Josephine Wren from Dún
Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
“It seems to me that you tried to please everyone.
The result is that no one is pleased, least of all God!”
In his reply,
Haughey said it was “very kind of her” to send the medal but he did not
mention if he would carry it in his pocket.
The November 1st date for
the legalising of contraceptives caused consternation for one Co Cork
writer, who said legalisation on All Saints Day was “an insult to all
the saints, holy souls and Irish people”.
A Dún Laoghaire-based
doctor, Noel Smyth, wrote in February 1980 that he was disappointed that
Haughey’s wife was “interrogated” on the “scurrilous” radio programme
Women Today .
He was “grieved” to hear her “prompted” to
advocate contraception, complaining that the programme had previously
covered the topic of “electric vibrators”.
The taoiseach’s files released in the 1980 State papers contain far fewer letters from the opposite argument.
However
Haughey did receive letters objecting that the regulations were too
restrictive from groups such as the Women’s Abortion Action Campaign.
SIC: IT/IE