It is interesting that the first words that Stuart Derbyshire chooses to quote from Kitty Holland’s book (“Savita Halappanavar: What Neither Side Wants to Admit about Choice,” Vol. XXXV No. 2) are, “The baby won’t survive.” These words, spoken by the obstetrics registrar, would, in other jurisdictions, have presaged a conversation between Savita, her husband and her doctor as to whether she should continue with this pregnancy or not. Such a conversation would have been based upon the assumption that Savita was a moral agent, capable of making a moral judgment for which she would be held accountable.

In the context of obstetric care in Ireland, the only circumstances in which a woman’s wishes are not taken into account, where she is allowed no input at all into her care, are those related to the termination of her pregnancy. This pertains even in the case of rape, incest or fatal abnormalities in the fetus, conditions which elicit popular support in Ireland as grounds for termination. There are only two other categories of Irish patients who are treated in the same way: minors and the mentally ill. This situation is based upon the assumption that Savita, and other women, are likewise incapable of making adequate moral judgments.

Of course, a grown woman can’t argue that she is a minor, but if she is willing to assert that she is mentally distressed to the point of suicide then she might be considered mad enough to do something allegedly bad. The antichoice advocates conceded abortion being made legal when a woman is suicidal even as they, probably correctly, assert that this will open the way for abortion on request. If terminations were legally available without the current restrictions, women would not have to mention suicide—the fact that otherwise healthy women may only access abortion if they describe themselves as mentally unstable is, at the very least, dishonest.

Sadly, just as dishonest, as Mr. Derbyshire points out, are the prochoice advocates who fail to argue for abortion on the ground that this is simply what the woman wants. Women have a conscience, formed by their beliefs, just as surely as those who would deny them equal moral agency. Women have the capacity, the right and the responsibility to make a decision as to whether -abortion is justified in their specific circumstances.

We haven’t hung any women from trees lately in Ireland, but we are letting them die in grottos dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and in our Catholic hospitals. We need to feel shame before we think judgment. What did that man write in the sand anyway?

GAIL GROSSMAN FREYNE, LL.B., PHD
Family Therapist and Mediator
Founding member of the Family Therapy & Counselling Centre
Dublin, Ireland