John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last April the House discussed at length the need to bring forward legislation for the safe and legal termination of pregnancy. The Government, made up of so many so-called liberals, shot down that motion to legislate in the X case, a ruling which would allow access to termination for a woman if her life was in danger. This was not the first time these acrimonious divisions on abortion were stirred up. We have been listening to the same argument in one form or another over the past three decades. One Government after another has engaged in the ultimate act of political cynicism by failing to clarify the circumstances in which abortion is permissible. Like it or not, those of us who supported the motion last April had to accept the Government's promise that the expert group's report was on its way. What we did not know was that it would it take the tragic death of a young woman to force the Government to sit up and take notice of the legislative void that is preventing the termination of pregnancies. It is a full 20 years since the Supreme Court ruled that a suicidal pregnant teenager had the right to an abortion because there was a real and substantial risk to life.

We cannot yet know what happened in the last days of Savita's life, no more than we can judge the actions of the particular doctor or nurse nor their collective actions. However, there can be no denying that in the final days, Savita requested treatment which was denied to her. This is a shameful occurrence in a State which lays claim to membership of a civilised world.

The Government must now step up to the mark and leave 20 years of political cowardice behind. There has been anger outside the Dáil last week and this week and a shocked response throughout the country. This could have been any woman of child-bearing age. The longer we in this House procrastinate, the greater the possibility that this could happen again. It could happen tomorrow or next week. This is not about pro-choice; this is about women's health which the past seven Governments - this one included - have made clear matters very little. This tragic young woman was denied the basic human right to choose what happens to her body. It is horrendous. Last year, the grand chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a woman had her rights violated because the Irish Government had failed to legislate for the X case. This Government established a commission which took a full 12 months to report, during which time at least 12 women every day travelled outside this country for an abortion. The Government seemed quite content to sit idly by and to allow this problem to be exported across the water. In 20 years we have exported more than 100,000 women to the shores of Great Britain. It is shameful.

There has been a significant rise in the seizures by Customs of risky unrelated abortion pills ordered over the Internet. Last April I referred in the House to figures released under the freedom of information legislation. I was shocked at the revelation that Customs seized 1,216 packs of DIY abortion pills which had been ordered online in the period since 2009. It is tragic and appalling that women are reduced to this. We should hang our heads in shame. The Minister will know that women who use these pills risk excessive blood loss, womb infection, blood poisoning and even death. These women receive no professional confirmation that they are no longer pregnant. An incomplete abortion could leave the baby with defects or part of the foetus could remain in the uterus leading to infection. This could damage a woman's fertility if left untreated. How can this be allowed to happen in a civilised country? Thousands of women are still buying these pills online. If this is what women in the Irish State in 2012 are reduced to doing, every one of us should hang our heads in shame.

The Government needs to get off the fence on this issue. If the timeframe is a problem, let us sit through the Christmas holidays to deal with this legislation. We are putting more women's lives at risk. I remind the House of a picture in The Irish Times some years ago. It showed an image of Ireland surrounded by barbed wire and woman trying to climb out over it. How shameful.

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