Barbarism of State Absolutism : Irish controversy underscores personal nature of abortion decision

Ireland’s Supreme Court Wednesday made the only humane and morally acceptable decision it could when it permitted a 14-year-old rape victim to travel to Britain to obtain an abortion. But Ireland’s public torment over this case should serve as fair warning to governments that try to severely restrict a woman’s right of choice.

Abortion has long been illegal in Ireland, but in recent weeks the teen-ager, now almost 3 months pregnant, went to Britain, like an estimated 5,000 Irishwomen each year, for the operation. While there, Irish officials issued an injunction banning her from having an abortion. She returned home, still pregnant and threatening to commit suicide. Last week, the Dublin High Court upheld that injunction, which Wednesday’s landmark ruling overturned.

This spectacle has brought international embarrassment to Ireland because it so precisely demonstrates the barbarism of an absolutist state position on abortion. Every unwanted pregnancy raises intense moral, ethical and economic issues. But who better to balance those issues--to make the decision to continue or terminate a pregnancy--than the woman who herself must ultimately live with the consequences of her choice?

Such searing, private decisions must never again become a matter of public debate as happened in Ireland. The tragic plight of this girl has been the subject of opinion polling in Ireland and diplomatic conversations abroad; Swedish deputies urged King Carl Gustav to cancel a planned trip to Ireland.

Irish President Mary Robinson said that this case had caused her nation “universal anguish and concern.” Americans who would severely restrict the right to choice here should heed those words.