In this our second post on political reaction to the recent A, B and C case, we look at the response of the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny who has confirmed his opposition to legalising abortion on demand, but ruled out giving any pre-election commitment to hold a referendum on the matter, he also left a question mark against so called “hard cases” which is very worrying. Pro abortion lobbyists regularly promote this issue as a means of gaining access to abortion
Mr Kenny told The Irish Times Dec 28 that the best way to deal with the fallout from the European Court decision would be through an all-party Oireachtas committee.
“While the ECHR judgment must be responded to, it will not be the immediate priority of a Fine Gael-led government. Our priority will be to restore sound public finances, get people back to work and reform our public services and political system,”
Mr Kenny said abortion had been a very divisive issue in Ireland in the past and a re-run of those debates was not what the country needed right now.
“This is very divisive and there are deeply and sincerely held views on all sides of this argument. This obviously is going to be a matter for the next Oireachtas to deal with,” [...]
“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.”
