Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Táim an-bhuíoch as labhairt ar an ábhar seo, go háirithe mar gheall ar cad a tharla do Savita Halappanavar i nGaillimh le déanaí. Savita Halappanavar is not the first person to lose her life as a result of the failure of Irish law to protect the health of women. In 1983, shortly after the passing of the supposed pro-life amendment, Sheila Hodgers died having been taken off her cancer treatment after becoming pregnant. At the time, her husband, Brendan, stated the following:

I went to see Sheila one night and she was in absolute agony. She was literally screaming at this stage. I could hear her from the front door of the hospital and she was in a ward on the fourth floor. I saw the sister and she produced a doctor who said nothing that made any sense.

It does not make sense that 30 years after the agonising death of Sheila Hodgers in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and 20 years after the scandal of the X case, we still find ourselves in this position. Despite all that has happened in the past week and the needless death of a vital and promising young woman, Savita Halappanavar, nothing has changed. We still have elected representatives, people who claim to be leaders, buckling in cowardice at the fear of an anti-woman rump in society which for far too long told us what we could and could not do. There is no justification for the absence of legislation to bring the law into line with the judgment in the X case. To do so would simply be to give a basic recognition of a woman's right to live as an individual and human being, rather than as an incubator who is less important than a few more days of gestation for a hopeless pregnancy which cannot run its course.

The story of the X case shamed all but a brave few. I have held the same view on this matter for a long time and I have been unswerving in holding it. I have never denied my position and I have taken part in marches and campaigned on the issue in my own way. I regret not doing more and that I did not give the issue greater priority. I cannot deny that the extreme reactions of groups such as Youth Defence and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children were off-putting and created conditions in which many good people stayed silent for fear of being shouted down in the most vicious of ways. Last Saturday, I marched again through the streets of Dublin with thousands of people unified in their desire to see a woman's right to health care realised and respected.

I stood with people who were born after the X case and who were children when we last voted in a referendum to uphold the X case ruling against a cynical attempt to roll back the rights it defined. I stood with people who had campaigned in 1983 and who had seen all of this lying ahead. I stood with people who had ridden the trains from Belfast to Dublin, their pockets loaded with condoms in defiance of another archaic law that had been upheld for far too long. I stood with the best people in this country, those who had fought and would fight for real change for the betterment of everyone's life and who will not bow down to those who seek to control them as children who cannot be trusted to know what is for their own good.

I was moved by their frustration, grief and anger at the death of Savita. I share their feelings. In that crowd of people who had never met her or anyone connected to her, their feelings were palpable and were only equalled by their determination not to accept failure, equivocation or bargaining. They are determined to win their rights. For them, this is not an abstract or lofty debate on life or morality. This is their right not to die because they become less equal when they become pregnant.

In the crowd were Savitas, Sheilas and, God forbid, Xs, As and Cs. There were the 12 women who travel to the UK every day, the one in approximately every ten women whom everyone knows, who had abortions. They were the women of Ireland with their husbands, partners, brothers and fathers in tow. I cannot help but consider the many baby girls who are born today. Women are still not equal in our society. Those girls will have it harder than boys born today, even if that difference is less than what it was between their grandmothers and grandfathers.

Like others, I am in this Chamber to end that inequality and to ensure that men and women can lead good lives in a country of which they can be proud. I am ashamed that a girl born today is born into a country where women die after being refused proper treatment. I do not want that to be the country in which the next generation grows up. Many of us have had our children and raised them. Let us do something for those who follow us, who are starting families or who are only meeting their families for the first time. Let us give them peace of mind from knowing that, in Irish hospitals, women's health is never compromised. This is a country that values women's health and welfare cheaply, where a mere €15,000 fine is incurred for rape or a €5,000 fine is incurred for beating one's girlfriend until her face is irreparably scarred. Can we be surprised that appropriate health care is not available to all women in all circumstances?

Many will argue that we must take time to determine the steps forward based on the expert group's findings, but this is not the first expert group. Nor is it 1993. We have not rushed - we have been dragged kicking and screaming into the light and made to stare cowardice in the face 20 years on. If we need an expert group to tell us what is plainly the right action to take or which way is up, we can come to no other conclusion than that we are lost. The Government may be lost, but the people are not. They are more and more certain. They are also certain that we will not revert. They will not relent until justice is won. This is not the right action to take simply as a matter of responsibility for closing the gap between constitutional and legislative rights. Rather, it is the right action to take because it recognises a woman's right to be treated properly and to have her life saved and because it is what the people want.

Do not get distracted by issues not covered by the X case ruling. To reject this call because the Government is opposed to the liberalisation of abortion would be to disregard the State's constitutional reality and to refuse the people their right to decide what is in their best interests. It would be undemocratic, wrong and a dereliction of the Government's duty to legislate for the good people of Ireland and their will.

An important point has to do with how the Savita case is being dealt with and the way we find out the exact circumstances of her death. Her widower, Praveen, was justified in his misgivings about the original set-up. It would have constituted a conflict of interest on the part of the Galway hospital staff appointed to the board. I welcome the HSE's recognition of that fact and its statement that Praveen's concerns were serious. Praveen has rightly called for a full and public investigation into what is a credible case of grave mistreatment by Savita's medical team and potentially by the negligent State that failed to give doctors sufficient guidelines to prevent such circumstances arising.

I call on the Government to do all in its power to ensure an independent investigation into Savita's death that is only interested in revealing the truth of what occurred. Government Deputies, Fianna Fáil Members and reluctant Independents should support this motion and the legislation that would flow from it. Do not cop out and support the gutting amendment to wait and see. Do not fear the backlash of a right-wing rump that is long past its prime and rapidly becoming a spent force. That rump has opposed every progressive step that this State has taken and held our people back through fear, hatred and misinformation. Its time is over. Vote with us and maintain the momentum towards a change in the law so that we can give women peace of mind from knowing that they will be cared for during their pregnancies.

It is our duty to legislate. This is not cynical or opportunistic. The way that the Government has avoided this issue for the past 20 years has been cynical.

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