Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I commend Deputies Clare Daly and Joan Collins of the United Left Alliance, as well as Independent Deputy Mick Wallace, on bringing forward this Bill, the Medical Treatment (Termination of Pregnancy in Case of Risk to Life of Pregnant Woman) Bill 2012. By doing so they have insisted that a real debate would take place in Dáil Éireann on the critical needs of women in Ireland whose lives are threatened as a result of pregnancy and who need a termination of pregnancy for the safeguarding of their lives but are denied this in the State at present.

The proposers have said that they have limited the Bill to such a scope because of the constitutional prohibition on the woman's right to choose to terminate a pregnancy in any other circumstances. They wanted to give the Government the opportunity to accept the Bill. I take issue strongly with the contributions of two Labour Deputies last night who claimed they would not support the Bill because it did not go far enough. They did not elaborate in an honest fashion as to how far they wanted it to go. Were they implying that they would support the right of a woman to choose in all circumstances? They did not say. The proposers designed the Bill to come within the constitutional limitations so that the Government could accept it and if improvements could be made by agreement, the Bill could be passed. If the Bill allowed for a woman's right to choose, which should be the case in this State, the Government would have immediately seized this as a reason for rejecting the Bill on constitutional grounds, giving the Labour Deputies another excuse to prevaricate.

I cannot take seriously those Deputies who say they will not support the Bill because it does not go far enough. If that were the case, the obvious action would be to support the Bill, which addresses one very difficult and critical issue, and then campaign for constitutional change. The Government should accept this Bill and the area it covers, and it could widen the terms of reference of the expert group to deal with the broader issues of the thousands of women forced to leave this country for terminations of pregnancy. That is the approach taken by the proposers of this Bill, which is correct.

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