Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the speakers for their contributions. I have not got to read the report in great detail today but I welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue with them. I have some specific questions about the pieces I have read. With respect to the closing arguments that were made about repealing the eighth amendment, that abortion be decriminalised and that the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act would have to be repealed, and Deputy Daly picked up on those, none of this can happen unless we repeal the eighth amendment. That is the quandary in which we find ourselves. That must be the launch pad for any conversation around this. There will be differences of opinion about how and what comes after that, but none of this can happen unless we can repeal the eighth amendment. I believe we should do that.

It is worth noting that the World Health Organization's figures show that throughout the world approximately 800 pregnant women die every day. As a young woman and a legislator, it jars with me that our development policy is far more progressive than our domestic policy. Those 800 women a day who die in pregnancy due to childbirth, as per the WHO figures, live in developing countries. Thankfully, childbirth here is relatively safe. There are always difficulties, but relatively and most strikingly, that was not the case for Savita Halappanavar in Galway. It is not correct to say that legislation in terms of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, as restrictive and as difficult as it is, happened because of Savita's case. Her case completely changed public opinion. That is what it did. That legislation was trying to catch up with something that happened 21 years previously. That shows that this legislation was hard fought for by many people over many years but society, opinion and circumstances have moved on considerably in that time.

On the issue of decriminalisation, one of the speakers made a comment about the procurement of illegal abortions in Ireland. I would like to know a little more about that. Was the speaker saying that the procurement of illegal abortions in Ireland is happening through people buying medication online, or that backstreet abortions are being carried out by unqualified people, or that qualified people are participating in abortions? We know that women in Ireland have abortions every year but they have to travel to the UK.

I welcome again the publication of Amnesty International's report but it is shameful that this is the focus of it, that women are treated like this. My position as an individual is very clear but, as other Deputies have said, we have to work to the middle ground in terms of repealing the eighth amendment. That must be the first step. None of the other things we want can happen unless we remove this amendment. As a young parliamentarian, I would like the opportunity to vote on an issue like this because I am probably one of a very few number of people physically who could be in this position in the next ten years. I also want to thank the very brave women and their partners, husbands and boyfriends who came forward and spoke about the issues around fatal foetal impairment and the treatment, if it could be called that, they have to go to Liverpool to get. There has also been a seismic shift in public opinion on this issue and, to be fair, among legislators as well when they have heard these stories of these very brave families and the really awful way in which they are treated. We need help from civil society. We need to work together to make sure we get over the first hurdle of repealing the eighth amendment. The committee has said it will give more time to this in its work programme following on from the commission report the Labour Party published under the lead of Senator Ivana Bacik. I look forward to that.