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Opinion,
Comment & Reviews
Ireland and abortion |
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Still
time for women to have a say
By Eileen Fegan,
School of Law, Queen's University, Belfast
14 February 2001
The next two weeks are crucial for the future of women in
Northern Ireland. February 28th is the deadline for the submission
of comments on the content on the new Bill of Rights which
will provide the framework within which our legal and political
battles will henceforth be fought - possibly for generations
and centuries to come.
While legal rights by no means are the only solution to the
pervasive discrimination and systematic disadvantage of women,
their absence often provides a symbolic 'free for all' in
institutions of power. Indeed, the extent to which women may
even have a right to life in the province is currently under
question. Last week Justice Sheils' justified a sentence of
three years probation for a man who had battered his sister
to death by saying: "[I]t is clear from the evidence that
your sister had a very sharp tongue." It is hard to think
of a clearer example of women's inequality which, I have argued
elsewhere permeates legal, social, cultural, economic, religious
- and of course, political - spheres. This is why the process
of consultation on the Bill of Rights is so critically important
for women's interest groups and political organisations.
Symbolically and materially, unfettered and effective control
over their reproductive capacities is necessary for women
's enjoyment not only of equal rights, but more importantly,
of 'equal personhood'. The term, used by American academic
Drucilla Cornell, includes the 'chance to imagine oneself
as whole' - referring to the fullest potential women might
reach if they were not 'constrained in their imagination of
who they are or might become by an imposed gender hierarchy'.
That is, by rules, practices and beliefs which limit your
expectations simply because of your sex. With women entering
higher education and particularly, disciplines like law and
politics in greater numbers it is time for serious reflection
on what we are all losing when half the population's potential
is constrained by a legal system which makes their most intimate
decisions for them.
The prohibition of abortion assumes that it is better for
a woman to become an unwilling mother than to become the person
she would determine for herself were the freedom hers. And
in doing this it does not even consider the quality of life,
which follows for the mother, the unwanted child, nor the
society, it enters.
When women's reproductive capacity is automatically considered
to override all their other capacities, the consequences are
social as well as individual. It makes us think of equality
in terms of wasted opportunities, not just for individuals,
but for society as a whole - and ours cannot afford to continue
this loss.
Just considering what women might achieve if encouraged to
explore their fullest self-expression (in addition to the
vast array of knowledge and skills they acquire through mothering),
is enough to support the view that they must play a full and
active role in the new self-governing Northern Ireland - and
that it will undoubtedly be impoverished if they don't.
Needless to say, there are religious sensibilities at stake
here, but these are arguably being well enough considered
by the multitude of groups involved in the consultation and
drafting processes of the Bill of Rights. Art 10 of Human
Rights Act guarantees the freedom to express these views publicly
whatever stance is taken on reproductive rights. Otherwise,
it is unlikely that anyone will be forced to have - or perform
- an abortion here against their wishes. It is well known
that large numbers of Northern Irish women travel to Great
Britain every year to terminate pregnancies legally. Is it
necessary to require women to endure this financial, physical
and psychological burden in order to protect others' religious
beliefs? Is it offensive to treat these women as equal and
responsible moral citizens in deciding their own life path
- for which they ultimately are answerable? Unfortunately,
some will say it is, but the legal system does not have to
keep its force behind them.
The religious arguments traditionally put forward to preserve
the nineteenth century legal prohibition of abortion (it was
first prohibited by legislation in 1803) in Northern Ireland
are becoming increasingly irrelevant. They depend too much
upon 'the church and state' association, which has often been
the source of violent conflict here. Moreover, any attempt
to entrench a right to life for 'the unborn' should consider
the Republic of Ireland's current unworkable constitutional
position. It is simply not possible to honour the equal right
to life of a foetus and of its 'mother' when her life is endangered
by the pregnancy. However, what is needed in the Bill of Rights
is a commitment to ensuring a decent standard of life for
the children we already have and their mothers - for statistically
they are the poorest members of society.
With increasing prosperity, immigration and the return of
emigrants this is rapidly becoming a more secular and liberal
state. The changes this has brought are not merely demographic
and economic. They are also political - and not in the old,
worn out 'Troubles' sense of the word. Since women are participating
at higher levels and in greater numbers in public and economic
life, it is becoming more obvious that to continue controlling
their reproductive decision is incompatible with the ideals
of equal opportunity such as that espoused in the Good Friday
Agreement. It is a signal that women are only participating
in the new legal and social institutions because a chivalrous
patriarchal order has deigned to allow them - up to a point:
the biological one. Because of course, that is where 'Nature'
speaks for itself.
A serious commitment to equality in the forthcoming Bill of
Rights would make it no more natural, moral or necessary in
religious terms to prohibit abortion for women than it than
would be to ban heart surgery (or any other life saving or
prolonging treatment) for men. Justifications for an outright
ban on abortion from different sides of the old political
divide in Northern Ireland have one thing in common. They
do not see women as equal and fully participating members
of this society, nor do they appreciate the need for them
to become so in future. The Women's Coalition and other groups
however represent a more hopeful and positive vision for the
future of Northern Ireland - one which is not divided along
the sectarian lines which have kept us in a state of near
tribal warfare for over 30 years.
Women's groups and political organisations need to mobilise
on this issue now because they represent the only real experts
when it comes to the effects of regulating women's reproductive
capacities. It is time for the law to reflect the fact that
reproductive freedom is essential to women's substantive equality.
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