I’m not a fan of Clare Daly or her politics, and I’m very much on the fence about abortion, but well done the deputy for Dublin North for putting down a private member’s bill on abortion, as mentioned here. This needs to be debated, and I’m looking forward to the gutless bastards who make up a sizable proportion of our Dail scurrying for cover and trying to avoid having to, you know, take a legislative position on a piece of legislation, which will be a novelty. I’m also looking forward to the stance of Labour and Sinn Fein deputies. Labour will try to pull the “we’re voting no because the government will be introducing its own legislation” card, but they should have their cards marked on this, because I doubt FG will ever allow a government bill, and so for most Labour TDs, it will be a fact that the only time they ever voted on abortion, it was against. As for the shinners, it will be fascinating to watch their left wing urban consciences battling against their rural conservative consciences.
By the way, pro-lifers should welcome this bill, if only because it’ll allow them to see who their real friends are. I don’t agree with conservative Catholics on a lot, but they are as entitled to have their voices in the Dail as anyone else. It’s all well and good FF and FG deputies and senators waving their pro-life credentials around in private, let’ s see them do it in public.
Will it be divisive? Of course it will be, and it should be. That’s what parliaments are for. They don’t call a vote in a parliament a “division” for nothing, you know.