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THERE HAS BEEN much debate about abortion in Ireland over the years, never more so than in 1992 when the X Case dominated headlines and conversations around the country.
Many people contacted politicians over the issue and newly released records show the type of letters that were sent to President Mary Robinson, Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and other politicians at the time.
State Papers – official documents from Government departments and the President’s Office – are generally made available to the public 30 years after the fact.
A tranche of documents released this month include letters sent to Robinson and Reynolds at the height of the X Case debate.
The letters highlight how divisise the issue was in Ireland and abroad. Most of the letters in these files called on Robinson and the Government to intervene and allow the girl at the centre of the case to travel for a termination.
You can read a full timeline related to the X Case here but to recap, the case centred on a 14-year-old girl who had been raped by a man known to her and her family in December 1991.
She became pregnant and it was later discovered that she was being sexually abused by the same man for the previous two years. The rape was reported to gardaí in January 1992 and investigations began.
In February, the victim and her parents decided to travel to the UK so she could have a termination. The family informed the gardaí of their decision, who in turn informed the Director of Public Prosecutions, who liaised with the Attorney General Harry Whelehan.
On 6 February 1992, the defendant and her parents travelled to England and arrangements were made for an abortion to take place in London.
On the same date, the Attorney General obtained an interim injunction stopping the teenager and her parents from leaving the country or arranging the termination of the pregnancy. Once they were informed of the injunction, the family returned to Ireland.
Whelehan later said he had “no choice in the circumstances” other than to intervene.
His order was based on Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution, more specifically on the 1983 amendment that puts the right of the unborn child’s right to life on an equal footing of the mother’s right to life.
There was fierce debate over whether or not the girl should be allowed to travel to get a termination.
Although the X Case ended up being bigger than the individual, at the centre of it all was a distressed, pregnant young teenager – a victim of rape on the verge of taking her own life.
The letters sent to Robinson in February 1992 reflect the wider conversation that was happening in Ireland and abroad.
Most of the letters were concerned about the girl in question and supported her being allowed to terminate the pregnancy.
One international letter sent to Robinson came from the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights which was based in Amsterdam.
On 24 February 1992 the group wrote: “It is with disbelief and disgust that we heard about the young Irish girl, who became pregnant after having been raped and who subsequently has been forbidden to leave Ireland to have an abortion performed in Great Britain, as she had decided to do.
“Our first thoughts were of course for her as it is so easy to imagine her personal agony. First she had to go through a terrible period of being sexually intimidated and finally being raped without daring to tell anyone. After that she was confronted with a most unwanted pregnancy which she was not allowed to end.
“In this terrible situation she became a prisoner in her own country. Several of her rights have been violated, of which at present the most urgent one is the denial of her right to leave her country and to return to it.”
The letter continues: “The Republic of Ireland belongs to Europe but it has removed itself very far from it and it is being watched in horror.
“It was as recent as June 1990 at the Conference for Safety and Cooperation in Europe in Copenhagen that the “respect for the right of everyone to leave his or her country and return to it” was solemnly reconfirmed, also by the Irish Republic.
For the girl in question, the first priority is the immediate lifting of the injunction to enable her to go to Great Britain to have the abortion performed. We strongly appeal to you to do everything that is within your power to allow her to leave Ireland legally.
“The next priority should be to prevent that any girl or woman will await the same tragedy. Here we come to the root of the problem, that is that Irish women are denied a basic human right: their right to decide if and how many children they want.”
Another international letter sent to Robinson and Reynolds came from Catholics for Choice, an organisation based in Washington DC.
On 19 February 1992 the group said it was “appalled” by the injunction preventing the young girl from travelling.
“We are appalled by the recent decision of the Irish High Court to uphold an injunction preventing an unnamed 14-year old girl, pregnant as a result of rape, from obtaining a legal abortion in Great Britain.
We wish to express our deep concern and compassion for the girl and her family, who are facing with great courage one of the most difficult and wrenching moral and legal situations imaginable.
“There is no Irish law that would prevent abortion in this case. The Irish constitution, amended in 1983 to include the right to life of the fetus, requires that this right be balanced with the right to life of the pregnant woman.
“Prior to the adoption of this amendment, the right to life of a pregnant woman was broadly interpreted; that right has not been redefined in the courts and is still open to interpretation.
The circumstances in this particular case — the girl’s youth, the trauma of sexual abuse and rape, her suicidal emotional state — leave the court wide latitude to determine that this pregnancy is a genuine threat to her life…
“We, the undersigned, demand that human rights be restored to the 14-year-old girl in this case. Specifically, we call on the Irish government to abide by universal and basic principles of justice and human dignity by recognizing her right to life as well as her right to travel.”
Several expats or people of Irish descent living abroad also wrote to Robinson.
One woman living in New York told the president: “As a woman of Irish descent I wish to strongly protest the decision of the Irish courts not to permit a safe legal abortion to an Irish minor who is an alleged rape victim.
“The news reports on this issue of the last few days coming out of my father’s country have made me truly heartsick.
“Could you please, in the name of compassion, bring pressure to bear on your government for a special dispensation to be given to this young girl and that she be allowed the freedom of movement enjoyed by other Irish citizens and access to a safe legal abortion?”
There is no moral merit in forcing this child to continue with her pregnancy for the condition has already menaced her sanity. Life at this price is not life.
“The court’s decision also sets a dangerous legal precedent that threatens the civil rights of all Irish women—that once pregnant your passport can be denied and your freedom of movement curtailed.”
She continued: “Surely, this amounts to reproductive fascism? It points out before the European Community and the rest of the world the appalling lowly status of Irish women and the gross entrenched ignorance of your male/church dominated government.
“To force a raped female to bear her rapist’s child and not provide her with the necessary medical choices she needs defies all civilized and humane reason. I never thought the day would come when I would be ashamed to be Irish – this is that day.”
Another Irish woman, who had lived abroad for 38 years, wrote to Reynolds with a different perspective. She said she was active in the pro-life movement in Canada.
“We have been proud that Ireland was the one country where the law protects the right to life of all, from conception to natural death,” she wrote.
“In our pro-life activities we have become fully cognizant of the extent to which pro-abortionists will go to promote the killing of the innocent (for who could be more innocent than the child in the womb?) and to protect those who do the killing.
“We are familiar with the distortions, half-truths and outright lies which are used to bring about the legalization of such killing and its acceptance by a public inadequately informed about the issue.
“We know, from many years experience, the pressure put upon frightened schoolgirls, vulnerable teenagers and even married women in their 30s and 40s, to abort their babies.”
She signed off the letter by saying: “You will find – although I am sure you already know – that if you open the door a crack for feminists and other pro-abortionists you will be only encouraging them to make greater and greater demands.
“I shall pray that you and your government will be given the strength to defend Ireland’s greatest future resource, its unborn children.”
Robinson also received a number of handwritten letters, including one from a nun based in Waterford.
She started the letter by thanking Robinson for her leadership. However, she noted: “I cannot agree with you though re your abortion views.
Who is more helpless, who needs more protection than the little unborn child, in God’s workshop of the womb?
The nun enclosed a prayer card and told Robinson: “You have been in my prayers about this – your word goes a long way but it is the Word Of God [that] lasts forever.”
Robinson also received letters from schoolgirls who were concerned about what was happening to one of their peers.
One girl living in England wrote about watching the X Case being discussed on the news. She said:
I too am a schoolgirl and have a friend who was raped. Having seen the emotional turmoil that she has endured, my sympathy extends infinitely towards any woman, let alone a young girl, who has had to suffer such a degrading and violating experience.
“You yourself should understand the struggle to keep sexism at bay, yet now women in Ireland seem to be being ordered whether or not to make themselves suffer through this.
“I understand the influence of religion on the laws in Ireland but for this case surely the health of the girl should be in mind, not upholding a law which is destroying her and her life.”
Two other schoolgirls, living in county Clare, also wrote to Robinson. They described themselves as “two concerned teenagers”.
“The girl is around our age, we think what the government is doing is making a fourteen year old child have a child. What the government does not seem to realise is the pain and suffering the girl will have to go through if she does,” they wrote.
The teenagers said they “could never comprehend the pain and suffering” of the girl. They said they didn’t agree with abortion “as a whole” but the girl at the centre of the case, and her parents, knew what was best for her.
Ultimately, an appeal in the X Case was heard in the Supreme Court in March 1992 and the judge ruled that the decision of the High Court should be set aside.
The girl was permitted to travel for an abortion but it is understood she suffered a miscarriage at a hospital in England following the hearing.
In 2013, 21 years after the X Case, the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act was signed into law, legalising abortion when doctors deemed that a woman’s life was at risk due to medical complications or if she was at risk of attempting suicide.
It also introduced a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment for having or assisting in an unlawful abortion. This law gave effect to the 1992 Supreme Court ruling in the X Case.
In 2018, Ireland voted by 66.4% to 33.6% to remove the Eighth Amendment from the Irish Constitution.
The subsequent legislation allows for terminations of pregnancy up to 12 weeks. It also provides for terminations where there is a risk to the life or a serious risk to the health of the pregnant woman.
However, some women still travel to the UK to access services.
Seventeen of the 19 maternity hospitals in Ireland provide abortion services. Five of these hospitals only began providing terminations earlier this month.
GP surgeries generally also provide some abortion services but accessibility varies around the country.
The Government is currently considering ways to improve access to services, following a review of the current legislation.
Contains reporting by Sinéad O’Carroll
The reference numbers for these State Papers are 2023/146/341 and 2023/146/342
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