Abortion – Enda Kenny talks to Stephen Collins

“In this case, my view is that we should set up an appropriate all-party committee with terms of reference that would allow it to have access to the best legal advice, to the best medical advice . . . what should be done might range across a spectrum, from legislation to a list of State recommendations or regulations that the medical profession could adhere to and operate within,” he says.

“My position is I do not favour legalising abortion on demand. We have a situation where you have difficult, hard cases, and some people have gone through very difficult circumstances but there is an ECHR judgment, there is a Supreme Court decision and there is a constitutional position. If the next Oireachtas is to respond, it has got to determine what the facts are, the scale of the problem and the nature of it and see if we can arrive at a consensus on how to deal with it.”

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Comment: This is a fair position for any Irish person to hold on this issue right now. Enda Kenny said that he will not shirk the issue. It is advisable to avoid a referendum on this issue because it is too divisive and is unnecessary. My view is that the European Court of Human Rights verdict and the Supreme Court decision should be synthesised and an agreed wording put into legislation -in the next Oireachtas. This is not about legislating for abortion on demand so the legislation will have to be directive and specific.
The issue of do-it-yourself medication with methotrexate or other abortion inducing pills should also be addressed.