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

It is very disingenuous of the Minister to say that legislation for abortion exists and that we do not need this Bill. The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act did not even facilitate the people it was meant to facilitate who were suicidal. That was very obvious last summer in the treatment of the most vulnerable migrant rape victim who was suicidal. She was deemed by doctors to need this but she could not get it. We need change. The Minister of Health has said that this is dangerous for women's health and he has cited circumstances and conditions where that might be the long-term health of women. We cannot deal with that until we scrap the eighth amendment. No change is possible. It is too forbidding of any change. We have to remove it from the Constitution.

The Minister said that voting to remove the eighth amendment would remove some rights for women. I ask what rights for women are involved. It is an imprisonment of women because as long as women are equated with a foetus, there cannot be any humane treatment for women. The eighth amendment has to go.

Deputies have talked about the need to wait until there is a consensus. There will never be a full consensus on this issue but what we can say is that it is probably not as divisive as some in this House would like to claim. Poll after poll has shown consensus on a number of issues, for example, where there is a risk to the mother's life. In one poll, 72% agreed there should be abortion in those circumstances. Another poll cited that 69% were in favour in the case of rape and this number was even higher in other polls. In the case of a threat to the long-term health of the woman, 68% agreed with abortion in that circumstance. Some 80% are in favour in cases of fatal foetal abnormality. These four cases show that there is consensus. Any division seems to be among the electorate that some in this House seem to want to court. I do not know if these might be older people or perhaps rural people. There is definitely a consensus around those four grounds for abortion. The argument made by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste last year is that the people have spoken and that the eighth amendment represents what people want.

This is a completely different country from 1983. In 1983, Magdalen laundries were still open, contraception was not fully legal and available, homosexuality was illegal, and many more people went to church and adhered to the tenets of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. We have a much more diverse, tolerant and liberal society now. I agree a referendum on the subject would be divisive but we have to have divisive debates if they are needed in order to protect women's health and women's lives and I believe it could be passed.

Ultimately, this is a woman's decision; only women can become pregnant. I point out that it is still women who, in general, are left with full responsibility for child-rearing. It is galling to listen to people throwing around the phrase, "abortion on demand", as if women just blithely demand an abortion.

It is not a phrase I would use. Having a child is a lifetime commitment. It is not an inconsiderable or small thing in someone's life. In general what it means is poverty, particularly if a woman does not have the support of a partner. The biggest single group in poverty in this country is made up of lone parents. A parent is twice as likely to rear a child in poverty if she is on her own than if she has a supportive partner. We cannot divorce decisions that women are making from the context of the austerity regime which has been raining down on women disproportionately, more than any other group in society.

I wish to be clear about it. In the pro-choice movement there is consensus around what is needed. We need to delete the eighth amendment, have a discussion and introduce legislation after that discussion takes place among the elected Members of the Parliament of the people. That is a far better forum for deciding the health needs of the population and women than putting a ban in the Constitution. The ban was voted in 32 years ago, more than a generation ago. My generation was let down by that amendment. We should not let down this generation and future generations.

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