Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin should not have to table this motion and I should not be making this speech. The thousands of people who took to the streets in the freezing cold on Saturday to demand the Government introduce legislation for the X case should not have had to be there. They should not have had to march through the streets of Dublin and Galway and hold vigils in towns around Ireland to make their voices heard when they said "never again". The Irish people who stand outside Irish embassies in the United States, Berlin, Vienna and London should not be there.

I do not disregard the divisiveness of the broader issue of abortion rights and access in Ireland. I believe in Christian values, values and teachings that are about love, compassion, respect and empathy. These are values that are not just central to me in life but also in how I conduct myself as a person elected to represent the people of my constituency.

My party's policy, as repeatedly agreed by our membership, is in line with those values. Sinn Féin is not in favour of abortion. We believe all possible means of education and support services should be in place. However, in cases of rape, incest and sexual abuse, or in which a woman's life and mental health are at risk or in grave danger, Sinn Féin accepts the final decision should rest with the woman concerned.

There are those who would argue against allowing abortion in the circumstances of rape and while, for them, it is an issue of conscience, rape and sexual crimes are one of the greatest violations a man can commit against a woman. Short of killing her, there is possibly nothing worse a person could do to a woman. It is a heinous crime. I could not and I would not ask any woman to bear the child of her rapist. The Rape Crisis Network of Ireland released statistics that showed in 2010 that 75 women who were pregnant as a result of rape used their services. Due to the nature of under-reporting of sexual crime, the real figure of women who found themselves in that situation is probably much higher. The organisation stated:

The RCNI would have concerns that any rape survivor would be subject to restrictions and would have to travel oversees to another jurisdiction in order to access a termination.[...] Rape Crisis Centres will continue to support survivors in making decisions which survivors feel are the right choices for their circumstances.

This is the key point. What is the right choice in their circumstance? If abortion was to be allowed in those circumstances, no person would be compelled to have one. Even church teachings hold a deep regard for an individual's conscience and, when discussing the matter of a woman who is pregnant as a result of rape, whose conscience takes priority? Is it the woman, a rape victim, seeking the procedure or the legislators who must provide a legal framework for her to access it? This is a discussion that I can see taking place further down the road. Like the grounds for the X case, it is something that we will end up revisiting.

With regard to the motion, it is very simple. The people have spoken and it is time for the Government to introduce legislation for the X case. The Government amendment to our motion simply notes that the expert group is examining the matter and it will propose a range of options as to how the Government should respond to the "complex and sensitive issues". Convening the expert group was a cop-out on the part of the Government, which knows that legislation has been needed since 1992 when the Supreme Court judgment in the X case was handed down. This was reiterated by the European Court of Human Rights in 2010 when it delivered judgment in the A, B and C v. Ireland case. It is a scandal that for 20 years, seven Governments have failed in their duties to women on this issue. I was a teenager when the X case took place. Never did I think I would be standing here, at nearly 40 years of age, as an elected member of the Dáil seeking legislation on that very issue. The expert group was convened as a way of delaying matters further. It was a way of ensuring Government Deputies did not have to come into the Dáil Chamber and place on the record where they stood on this.

Rather than giving a clear commitment to legislate for the X case, we hear from Government representatives a more nuanced position of calling for legal clarity. We must be clear that a statutory instrument will not suffice; this matter requires primary legislation. If a statutory instrument is produced, Government Members know it will be subject to legal challenge but it may be an opportunity to put off the inevitable - legislating - for just a little longer.

Over the past week my inbox has been filled with e-mails from people from my constituency demanding not that something be done about it but making a clear demand that we must legislate for the X case. The motion calls for legislation to provide women with access to abortions in cases where there is a risk to their lives. That is not to indulge in hyperbole. We must make no mistake that it is about life and death situations. No pregnant woman in Ireland should ever have to worry that, if something goes wrong in her pregnancy, she will be faced with a medical practitioner who refuses her the necessary treatment because of a legal vacuum that legislators in this House have stood over for 20 years.

Women should know that if their lives are in danger, they will be saved and doctors should know that if a woman's life is in danger, they can treat her appropriately. I have heard people say, throughout the course of the debate, that there is no medical condition in which a pregnant woman needs an abortion to save her life. While I am conscious there is an inquiry into the death of Savita Halappanavar, I respectfully suggest her grieving husband Praveen would beg to differ on that point and the husband of Sheila Hodgers may agree with him.

The death of Savita Halappanavar has shocked and saddened people throughout Ireland. It has underlined in the most tragic way possible the need for long overdue legislation in the State. The Government has stated its intention to bring forward legislation but successive Governments have failed to deal with the issue for 20 years. It is time, finally, for legislation to protect the rights of women as decided by the Supreme Court in 1992. This should be done in a reasoned, tolerant and considered manner and with maximum cross-party consensus. On this basis, Sinn Féin has tabled a Dáil motion that seeks, in a measured and reasoned way, to get our Government to act and to fulfil its responsibilities so that appalling situations, such as that which led to the death of Savita, can never happen in this country again.

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