Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The State does not have a pro-life position. It has a pro-hypocrisy position, which in its implementation means an anti-woman position. We have a constitutional hypocrisy whereby women have the constitutional right to travel to access abortions yet are denied abortions here. Those who avail of safe abortions here through the use of abortion pills face draconian penalties of up to 14 years in prison.

At least 12 women a day travel from Ireland to England for abortions. Others travel to Scotland, the Netherlands or elsewhere. Close to 20,000 women have been forced to travel for abortions under this Government's watch. The burden of that hypocrisy falls on all those who need to access an abortion who are faced with the extra stress and with the estimated expense, of between £400 and £2,000, of having to arrange to travel to Britain to access abortion. In particular, the burden of that hypocrisy falls on migrant women, working-class women on low incomes, and those who cannot afford to or simply are not able to travel. That burden of hypocrisy can, for them, mean death.

The hypocrisy at the centre of the State's approach to abortion rights is seen in the attitudes of all the big parties in the Dáil. Without the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar and the social movement and protest that developed in response demanding legislation for the X case and repeal of the eighth amendment, all of the parties in here would have simply ignored the question, as they have done for decades. Because of that movement, the Government felt compelled to do something, and what it did was to legislate based on the most restrictive interpretation possible of the X case. Then it was faced with the reality that that was entirely insufficient to deal with the reality of women's lives, insufficient to deal with the barbarity of Irish laws and insufficient to deal with changed social attitudes. There was the horrific case of Ms Y - a teenage asylum seeker who had been raped and was effectively held captive in Ireland and forced to give birth - as well as cases of fatal foetal abnormalities. Faced with demands from women for the right to reproductive justice and control of their bodies, the parties reverted to their position of official hypocrisy.

Each time a Bill has come before this House we have seen the big parties squirm and come up with excuses for voting against it. The Minister for Health says that the current Constitution is too restrictive and says he favours a repeal of the eighth amendment, but he has already voted against giving people the right to have a referendum to repeal that amendment and has voted against the extension of abortion rights for women in cases of fatal foetal abnormality. Another Fine Gael TD, Deputy Jerry Buttimer, has said that he now favours the repeal of the eighth amendment. He, the Minister for Health and others in Fine Gael have yet another opportunity to vote in favour of their professed positions.

Sinn Féin voted previously against the Bill to repeal the eighth amendment. Then it abstained on the vote on fatal foetal abnormalities on the grounds that the party had not discussed the issue at its Ard-Fheis, although in the past the party has voted on many issues that were not discussed or decided at its Ard-Fheis. At the last Ard-Fheis, delegates thankfully voted in favour of a provision for repeal of the eighth amendment, although, unfortunately, a motion to commit the party to a full pro-choice position was deemed to have fallen. Let us hope they take this position after their next Ard-Fheis and make that position clear and public. Fianna Fáil, a so-called republican party, simply tries to ignore this issue, in the best tradition of that party over decades, having voted against the previous Bill to repeal the eighth amendment, although with a free vote on the issue of fatal foetal abnormalities, for which only three voted in favour.

However, it is to the Labour Party that the prize for chief hypocrites must go, because its own argumentation inside this House condemns them. In arguing explicitly against the Bill to deal with cases of fatal foetal abnormality, they agreed that those women should be able to access abortion services legally in this country but went on to say that it would be unconstitutional to do so, relying on advice from the Attorney General that they did not share with anyone else. Instead, they argued that this did not go far enough, that repeal of the eighth amendment was necessary and that the Labour Party was campaigning for repeal of the eighth amendment, despite the fact that its members had previously voted down a Bill whose aim was precisely that - to repeal the eighth amendment. Then, at their conference, they reiterated their position. Here is an opportunity to put that position into effect. The Labour Party Members should vote for the Bill to provide for a referendum, so that people can decide whether to allow women to access abortion rights when they need to.

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