Labour Junior Health Minister Kathleen Lynch
has warned that a new referendum will be needed to bring any degree of
finality to the ongoing series of crises that are being sparked by
Ireland's current abortion regime.
The minister's warning is likely to provoke a furore within the pro-life wing of Fine Gael that is already suspicious of Labour's long-term intentions over abortion.
But,
speaking to the Sunday Independent, Ms Lynch claimed the Government's
response to the findings of the expert group on abortion will be "so
restrictive'' it will not even cover the protection of women suffering
from similar conditions to Savita Halappanavar.
The combination of the tragic death of Ms Halappanavar
and the release of the expert group report on abortion has led to
increasing public concern over the safety of pregnant Irish women faced
with life-threatening conditions.
However, while the Government's
final proposals have not yet been seen, Ms Lynch said of the expected
mix of legislation and regulations that if "people think this will deal
with the issues that face women every day of the week, that is not the
case".
Instead, she noted that the current constitutional and
legal restrictions mean "it will be so restrictive it will not do what
people out there expect it to do".
"I don't think it will cover
the Savita case. It will be very restrictive in terms of defining what
constitutes a threat to the mother," she said.
The constitutional
restrictions on abortion means that the Government's response to the
expert group can only deal with the issue of suicide rather than other
complex problems such as rape, incest, the variety of issues raised by
the A B and C cases or women carrying foetuses that will not survive
beyond childbirth.
This, she warns,
means any response can't "cover events that provide a threat to the
health of a mother that may develop into a threat to the life of the
mother".
The minister cited as examples issues such as high blood pressure or blood poisoning.
"These are not small threats and they can swiftly escalate," she said.
Last
week, in the Dail, Ms Lynch warned: "Mark my words there will be
another incident, and we will have to return and confront this issue
again."
Speaking to the Sunday Independent Ms Lynch repeated her
warning that "there are always in pregnancy going to be what lawyers
call hard cases. It is inevitable, and, it is equally inevitable that
the current or future legislation will not cover them."
This, she said, means that "the only way we can fully deal with the issue is to revisit it in a referendum".
Though
the minister's views are likely to be viewed with suspicion by the
pro-life wing of Fine Gael she stressed her views were not informed by a
pro-choice position.
"I am very much middle of the road. I don't
chose to judge people who have to make difficult decisions but I also
think the bishops and the church do have a right to be heard,'' she
said.
And she warned that whilst a referendum would represent a
"mature" response, the difficulties posed by any referendum on such an
"emotive issue" was epitomised by the Children's Referendum where "we
almost didn't pass a referendum that said children would be heard and
protected".