Four Fine Gael members are facing expulsion from the party for refusing to lend their support to a controversial abortion bill, approved by the Irish Parliament in a vote of 138-24 on Tuesday (2nd July).
This is the first of a series of votes expected to take place on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013, which seeks to permit terminations where the mother is threatening to commit suicide.
Code of Conduct
The decision was announced after the four members - Peter Mathews, Terence Flanagan, Billy Timmins and Brian Walsh – were informed by Government chief whip Paul Kehoe that they had breached the Fine Gael code of conduct by refusing to vote in favour of the legislation.
The spokesman for Fine Gael’s leader, Enda Kenny, said: "the Government position has been outlined very clearly. The consequences of voting against the Government are clear.”
Removed
The chief whip has also called for Mr Matthews and Mr Timmins to be imminently removed from the finance committee, and to be replaced by Deputies Regina Doherty and Paschal Donohoe.
“I’m disappointed from the point of view that we didn’t ever fight any election campaign on the basis that we would do this,” Mr Timmins said. “It wasn’t in the programme for government.”
Mr Kenny has refused to offer his party members a free vote on the issue.
Disciplinary action
Sinn Fein TD Peader Toibin, who voted against the legislation, is also set to face disciplinary action for defying the party whip.
In a statement, Mr Toibin said: "It is with great sadness that I have had to separate from my party on this, but I cannot vote for a medical evidence free bill that will result in the death and disablement of children.
“I am committed fully to the republican project of unity, equality and prosperity and I hope that I get an opportunity to put my energies into the republican project again.”
Illegal
Currently, abortions in Ireland are illegal unless they are performed to save the life of the mother.
The new bill proposes to allow terminations to “eliminate the risk of self-destruction” where the mother is threatening to kill herself if she is refused a termination.
But critics argue that the legislation will lead to abortion “on demand” and health experts - including leading obstetricians and psychiatrists - have rejected claims that abortion reduces the risk of suicidal inclinations.
No evidence
The head of St. Patrick's University Hospital, Ireland's leading psychiatric hospital, said that there is “no evidence either in literature or from the work of St. Patrick's University Hospital that indicates that termination of pregnancy is an effective treatment for any mental health disorder or difficulty.”
Last month, Professor David Fergusson of the University of Otago in New Zealand published a research paper concluding that there was no evidence that abortion reduces mental health consequences for women.
The proposed bill has also been opposed by the Irish Medical Association, which voted against liberalising the law on abortion earlier this year.
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