A FORMER Fianna Fail Minister and deputy leader of the party has revealed she paid for two women to travel to England to have an abortion in the 1990’s.
Mary O’Rourke, who retired from active politics in 2011, told the Irish Examiner that she provided money to two ‘distressed’ women while she was in office.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner’s political editor, Daniel McConnell, she said: “I remember distinctly helping two women financially, one went to Liverpool and the other went to London to have an abortion. I distinctly remember all the details. I remember the sordid reasons, very sad reasons in which why they were going.”
O’Rourke made the comments in the context of a discussion on the upcoming abortion referendum on May 25.
She said that her past experiences have left her “conflicted and undecided “ as to how to vote.
“I have been around a long time, and it is exactly why I am undecided. But I am not sure, because I have seen too much of life to see it as either black or white. It simply it is not black or white,” she said.
“People do an injustice to those in the middle who are unsure.”
When asked if she considered the legalities or the potential for negative public fallout if the news had gotten out.
“They were going, anyway, no matter what I said. I didn’t look at the legalities, I was not a police officer. They came to me for practical help and you know what that meant,” she said.
“Actually, I think I was in opposition so 1994 to 1997, I remember now that I wasn’t as harried as you would be if you were a minister. So I was a plain TD. But who wouldn’t try to help a woman in their hour of need?”
Ms O’Rourke said that the two women came to her in her constituency office, which she ran from her home.
“They weren’t just saying I just don’t want a baby, no they were not. So I am weighing all that up. I also feel those women did not have access to contraception and it was one of the reasons why it happened like that,” she said.
“I see one of them frequently, she seems to have since had a family, but I lost touch with the other.”
When asked why she was still conflicted on the abortion issue considering her experiences, she said: “There are no two cases the same, I wish it could be. I wish it could be straightforward for me, but it just isn’t.”
