Bigots unite against sex education
An Reabhloid1991Women's liberationPartition and the national questionLoyalism and unionismChurch, state and civil libertiesJohn MageeWomen's liberationPartition and the national questionLoyalism and unionismChurch, state and civil liberties
Read the scan at the Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line (PDF, page 20) →Machine-read text, not corrected. Cut from the issue's printed contents list: the article runs from its first page to the page before the next one, so the first and last pages may carry neighbouring items. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 20
BIGOTS UNITE AGAINST
SEX EDUCATION
An interesting if unsurprising feature of Norther Irish society over the past 20 years is the unity of Catholic and Protestant bigots on matters sexual. This unity surfaces every time there is a suggestion that people in Ireland should have the opportunity to be as informed about sexuality as the people of every other EEC member country. And it matters not what the intensity of sectarian conflict may be on other issues. Nothing 1s allowed to get in the way of the blessed crusade to keep the populace ignorant. So while Catholics are gunned down on a daily basis by Loyalist murder squads, the Catholic hierarchy and Ian Paisley’sFree[sic] Presbyterians are mounting acampaign against the opening of a Brooke Advisory Clinic in Belfast.
by the local Health and Social Services Board.
GROWING CONCERN
The Board's invitation reflected prowing concem amongst health professionals at the rising incidence of teenage pregnancies and the basic factual ignorance that many young people displayed about how their bodies function. It was recognised that these same young people were the last to seek advice from their family doctors or the statutory apencics and it was hoped that an independent voluntary apency guaranteeing confidentiality would be able toreach these young people. The religious approach to sex education in Ireland 1s to deny sex exists or to surround it with a fog of nonsense.
Arecent survey of teenage schoolchildren in County Cork pave adisturbing insightinto whatchildren are taught. The teenagers told how they had been told by a priest that a girl could become pregnant by sitting on a boy's knee. It also revealed that 70% of the 14 and 15 year olds interviewed knew a young girl in their class who had become pregnant.
Another survey published in 1990 into the attitudes of Insh women who seck abortion for unwanted pregnancies revealed that the main reason that those women chose to have an abortion was their “fear and shame” of having a child outside mamiage. The survey also showed that young Irish women who became pregnant outside marriage had almost no discussion with their parents about their pregnancy and that they felt alone and isolated in having to cope with the situation,
MUCH LESS THAN INFORMATION
The “progressive” wing of the church, if such be possible, of course admits the need for sex education but only as a preparation for marriage. The coordinator of the Marriage and Family ministry in the Catholic diocese of Down and Connor, which cover the greater Belfast area, claims that “sex education” should be more properly called “education for love” and is “much more than information or facts”. He wants sex education “within the framework of the Christian vision of human life and sexuality”!
Itis this same “vision” which secks to terrorise Irish women, which energetically mobilised all the dregs of Irish society to prohibit divorce in the 26 counties, to outlaw not just a women's right to choose but the “information or facts” that would allow women to make an informed choice.
A campaign has been set up by socialists and feminists to support the Health Board’s invitation to the Brooke advisory service. Resolutions are being put to trade union branches and community groups urging support for this initiative.
Letters supporting the Health Board's decision to invite the opening of the Brooke clinic should be sent to; Dr. Gabriel Scally Director of Public Health Eastern Health and Social Services Board Linenhall St. Belfast 1,
JOHN MAGEE.
RIGHT-WING SETBACK
In the 26 counties the earlier victory of SPUC in forcing a ban on abortion information has run into trouble despite la formal legal victory at the European court. The court found that students did not have an outomatic right to provide abortion infomation, but the judgement left so many legal loopholes that a ban is now impractical. A major s¢iback for the right, the judgement also shows the.
limits of European reformism and the importance of direct action by th student movement.
Abortion information British Pregnancy Advisory Service London 031 222 0085 Liverpool 035 222 0985 Dublin Women's Information Network Dublin 797 700 An Reabhloid page 19