Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Two constituents of mine and the Minister contacted me about the Bill as they were going through this scenario. I will briefly read the details of one Castleknock family:

Our family are currently suffering under the restrictions imposed on medical staff, patients, families and friends by current legislation. Our daughter and her husband were delighted to announce the news of their first baby last October.

I will give an edited version of the e-mail:

They were told that their baby is a baby girl ... [who has a condition that] is incompatible with life outside the womb...

What cannot be emphasised strongly enough is the impact that this has caused on our daughter and her husband, their parents, families and friends ... she has been too distressed to work since the baby’s diagnosis. They have been mourning the loss of their baby since week 14 of the pregnancy without the actual resolution of delivery...

If the proposed amendment was in place she would have been delivered in a sensitive caring supportive environment at 17-18 weeks; she would have received counselling and medical support and would be back at work again, healing and looking forward to planning for another baby ... Instead she and her husband will be travelling to Liverpool on Monday 9 Feb where they will deliver her baby.

My daughter and her husband have nothing but praise for the wonderful medical care and support they have received from all the staff in Holles Street but they are powerless to care for her appropriately in this pregnancy.

I put it to the Minister that it is absolutely embarrassing, sickening and shameful that we have families and women being put through this in 2015 in this country. He referred to a mandate. I defy him to walk out through the gates of Leinster House and find one person on the street who would support one family being put through this or who would oppose the legislation and support what was being done. Women are being forced to carry dead babies to full term, or else they are forced to leave the country to deal with the issue themselves in a foreign place without the support of their family, at their own expense, having made their own arrangements.

I support the Bill, as does the Socialist Party and the Anti-Austerity Alliance. I will not get into a Jesuitical debate about whether one can predict that a foetus will live for two or three minutes outside the womb. In fact, the Bill is extremely narrow. We are having this debate, yet again, because of the eight amendment. An extremely tiny minority would oppose the Bill. I have received one e-mail from an avid, anti-abortionist, pro-life person.

However, this tiny minority foisted the referendum on the rest of us 32 years ago. It does not have support in society any longer, but the Minister is continuing to stand over that situation.

For how long will we have these debates? We have had the death of Savita Halappanavar, there has been a migrant rape victim, a clinically dead pregnant woman and women are being forced out of our country every day. I am also appalled if the Labour Party does not support this Bill and that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have stood over this situation for the last few decades, when they could have dealt with it.

If the Bill is unconstitutional, what will the Minister do about it? A spate of referenda are due to be held in the next few months. Is the Minister seriously saying that the referendum regarding the age of the President is more important than this? It is unbelievable that the Government is holding a referendum on marriage equality, which I fully support and for which I will campaign, but is this not equally important? The United Nations has already condemned this country. Obviously it does not matter if women complain, but this country has become a source of international opprobrium by now. The same situation applies in Northern Ireland where sectarian parties such as the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, and the Social Democratic and Labour Party, SDLP, are preventing legislation such as this being introduced there.

It appears that women and families are yet again prey to the role of the church in this country over the years in preventing this legislation being introduced. The Minister should do the decent thing and support this legislation. Let it get tested in the courts if somebody wishes to initiate a case. The Minister is shaking his head, so will he agree to introduce a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment during the lifetime of this Government? I agree with the Minister that, ultimately, it is the only way to deal with giving women and their partners the power to make their own decisions. It should not even be at the behest of two doctors. People should be able to make these personal decisions for themselves and have the matter dealt with through our health service. We should not export the problem by sending people abroad on ships and airplanes at their own expense to deal with it by themselves.

I am glad a Labour Party Member has come to the House to listen to the debate but it is shameful if the Labour Party intends to stand over this issue not being dealt with. It is disgraceful.

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