Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Amendments Nos. 12 and 16 give legal definitions of the horrific reality of incest and of rape, which are both extremely serious violations of a human person and of a woman for the purposes of this legislation. Incest often arises in a family context, in great secrecy and causing great trauma to the victim or victims. Rape, as we know, is a heinous crime perpetrated against women in our society. The intent of amendments No. 31 and No. 84 is that where there is, unfortunately, a pregnancy as an outcome of these heinous crimes, this legislation should address that eventuality if the woman or a child wishes a termination of pregnancy. I think most compassionate people will agree that such a procedure should be available in the State for victims of incest and rape, and that the current situation whereby those victims are obliged to leave the country in order to secure a termination is unsupportable, is barbaric and is indeed utter hypocrisy. The Minister will come back and quote Article 40.3.3° of the Constitution. These amendments are tabled as a marker that these are critical issues that should be dealt with. If they are not dealt with today or if this amendment is defeated, they should be dealt with quickly in the very near future.

This inevitably brings us to the issue of a new national debate on the constitutional provisions, specifically Article 40.3.3°, and the need to repeal that article so that legislation can be put in place to provide for a compassionate resolution of crisis pregnancies arising from the horrific cases of rape and incest. In our society, a huge majority of our people is in favour of such an effort, and the legislation is way behind. The constitutional provision is way out of date compared to where our people have moved in the past 30 years or so, and it is not good enough for us to simply rely on the English solution to an Irish problem.

Along with the practitioner in question, a woman or child availing of a termination in this State, having found herself pregnant as a result of the horrific acts of incest or rape, would be open to prosecution and to a maximum of 14 years in jail. That is unacceptable and the reason we want to raise this matter in a very firm way with the Government today. We are marking an intention to press the issue hard in the next period of time if it is not accepted today.

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