Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have proposed a number of amendments to the section, the first of which seeks to put women at the heart of the legislation to ensure the choices they make are central to it. The use of language like "to intentionally end the life of a foetus" rather than to say "terminate a pregnancy" or, indeed, to use the word "abortion", which we seldom see or hear in this debate we have about abortion, represents a failure to confront language and deal with it. The eighth amendment is the protection of life legislation being perpetuated all over again. I am hopeful the amendments I suggest will be accepted.

My second amendment on the section focuses on offences. I have tried to ensure that medical practitioners as well as those acting with the explicit permission of the pregnant person are excluded from all offences. We need to assure medical professionals that if they act in good faith, there will be no sanction which inhibits them in their work. If we fail explicitly to protect doctors, the chilling effect, about which we heard at length, not just at the committee on the eighth amendment but in the Citizens' Assembly and in the course of the referendum debate, will continue.

Amendment No. 26 seeks to ensure that where a pregnant person explicitly requests someone to help obtain abortion pills from the Internet or another source, that person will not be guilty of an offence. We have seen the situation in the North, which was referred to earlier, where a woman was helped by her mother and now everyone involved is under investigation. That is not what we want to see as part of this legislation. We must remove the reference to a sentence of 14 years. This is an echo of the eighth amendment and the protection of life during pregnancy legislation which we all want to see gone. It is important to protect doctors by removing the chilling effect and to ensure that where a doctor acts in good faith, he or she is immune from criminal sanction.