John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I note with some concern and disbelief that over a two-day debate the Labour Party benches have been empty, with the exception of the Minister of State who is present. It is extraordinary given what those in the Labour Party have been saying at their conventions and Ard-Fheiseanna, particularly the female members of the Labour Party. I suppose I am not shocked, since the saying goes "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." I suppose they were not going to support this so they simply could not be here.

I wanted to discuss statistics and so on, but then I asked myself whether I would refer to the 4,000 women who have gone out of the country to have abortions or the woman who travelled to the United Kingdom two years ago for an abortion but died some hours later in the back of a taxi. A post mortem showed that she had died from a heart attack caused by extensive internal blood loss. I asked myself whether I would talk about the women who go on the Internet to buy pills which make them seriously ill, or those who become ill upon returning to Ireland after having procedures in England and Wales, only to find no service here. I asked myself whether I would refer to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, all of which have been critical of the Government.

The Minister came to the House last night and said "I like to believe that I am a conviction politician, often definite and sometimes blunt..." That is fair enough. I am unsure whether that is the case because I do not know the man well. He also said that he was pro-life. I do not have a problem with that because some of my friends are pro-life.

Anyway, I wanted to cut through all of that and talk about a girl called Helen. One day some years ago, a girl called Helen came to the House for Leaders' Questions. I will set out the story about Helen. Helen was physically, sexually and psychologically damaged some years ago. She was raped. That did terrible physical and psychological damage to her. She was also forcibly impregnated. I remember her telling me at the time that her greatest fear was not that she had broken her nose or had damaged her head or back but that she had been forcibly impregnated. This was what shocked her.

Helen went to the State for support. The initial support she got did not amount to much, because the perpetrator did not get what she deemed to be a proper sentence for destroying her life. I have no wish to pass comment on the sentence. Then, when she went to the State because she did not feel as though she could see through having the child, she was told that she could not have an abortion here and that she would have to go to England. This destroyed the woman's life. As she was going to England, her husband became seriously ill. He was unable to travel with her and she had to bring a friend.

I listened earlier to people talking about this matter being complicated and saying that we need a rational and reflective debate on these issues. Do any of the male politicians in this House tonight have the balls to tell the truth and give a definite answer? If it was their wife, mother or daughter, would they attempt to disagree with or prohibit the woman in question from having an abortion? I do not think so. Why do they not have the guts to stand up and say that? Why use all the jargon about complications and rational debates and so on? The rational debate has already taken place among the people, 85% of whom say that if a woman is raped she should be able to have an abortion in Ireland. Furthermore, 89% of people have said that a woman carrying a fatal foetal abnormality should be able to have an abortion in Ireland.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett, Deputy Catherine Murphy and others met several women, all of whom were in the Visitors' Gallery previously, who had to go to England with fatal foetal abnormalities. We met a woman named Marian, who had to bring the remains of her child back in a box in the back of a car. Yet, we are being told by the other side of the House that this could take ten or 20 years. In the meantime we farm out these women. I understand 462 women were raped this year, although I am unsure as I cannot recall what I was told today. One sixth of all these women will become impregnated and go to England. Are we saying now, in 2014, as competent politicians in a modern parliament in Europe, that we cannot deal with this issue for perhaps five, ten or 20 years?

10 o’clock

How offensive can that be to human beings? What kind of people are those opposite who say that these women will have to wait and that we cannot make a decision for them, or we will make a decision and say to these women, "When you are impregnated and when you are raped or if you feel that the specialists and consultants tell you that what will be born to you will be such a dismembered and broken foetus that it can have terrible psychological damage if you attempt to see this foetus " - which has happened to some women - "No, we cannot help you, go over to England or to Wales on a boat or on a plane"? It is horrendous. I never thought when I entered this Parliament that we would treat women so abominably in the year 2014. I am shocked, I am saddened, I am fed up, with what I hear from people about human rights, about what we might do, about how sorry we are, about how guilty we are and about what we might do if circumstances were different. It is a case of cover it up, shovel it out, that there is an election and we cannot do it before the election. The people have spoken and said it. It is about time people stood up and said enough is enough. Can somebody not break ranks over there and say, "I am going to support this Bill for those women who have died and for those women who will have to go to England tomorrow or in the next few week; I will make a change and I will stand up for the civil rights of women"? I apologise for the delay, Chairman.

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