Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Most people have said what I would like to say, so I will not repeat what has been said. I support the repeal of the eighth amendment because I do not believe this issue should have a place in our Constitution or that it is a constitutional issue. Deputy Kelleher said earlier that the difficulty in any referendum campaign is that it is rarely about what we are asking the public. We need to be very clear about what we want in place of what we have. We would probably all find difficulties with any legislation on this, based on what has been articulated. The issues Amnesty International has highlighted are issues I would support, but I also agree with Deputy Ó Caoláin's questioning in regard to terminology surrounding severe and fatal foetal impairment. That is new wording as far as we are concerned in this debate.

An issue that has not been raised is one I became very conscious of during the debate on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill. In our debate, we talk about the number of women who travel daily to Britain for abortions, but we do not talk about children who end up in the care of the State and who do not have that choice. That protection is not there for them. These are often children who have been raped by a family member. What choices and rights do these children have? Regretfully, I have come across cases involving these children whom we have totally and utterly failed. These children are put into the care of the State because we as legislators cannot come together and make laws in this area.

I appreciate what has been said about the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act. However, while I believe the debates and hearings we had were a good model, our debate was restricted by the Constitution. If we could have a wider debate, it would be useful for us to tease out the issues. Before we had our debates, I was not clear on my position, but the debate helped me to become comfortable with my position. We need to find a forum that is not focused on one or the other end of the spectrum, where one feels one has to apologise for standing in the middle and for not being strongly in favour of one end. We must try to see how many people we can bring to the centre to try to work out how they feel about this. We know how people at each end who are shouting out on this issue feel, but we must work out how we feel.