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

The human rights of women and girls are violated on a daily basis because of a constitution that treats them like child-bearing vessels. In the past week these words have been spoken about Ireland by the secretary general of Amnesty International. They were not about a Third World country or a member state of the European Union but about a state which, ironically, had just the first popular vote ever on same-sex marriage and had one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the world.

It is with regret that, despite many pressing issues, I have to use Leaders' Questions to bring this matter to the floor of the Dáil. We have fewer women here than in the Afghan Parliament, for example, and also fewer women among those who will bring these issues to the Tánaiste's attention. What will she do about the ongoing denial of women's human rights? A total of 7 million people are intervening in this country for the first time ever in an Amnesty International campaign, following a detailed booklet and report produced by it on this country. What is the Tánaiste's response to the report and doctors such as Peter Boylan who told Amnesty International, "We must wait until women become sick enough before we can intervene. How close to death do you have to be? There is no answer to that." What is the Tánaiste's response to women such as Lupe who was carrying a foetus with no heartbeat for 14 weeks and who had to travel to her home country of Spain to receive proper medical treatment? More generally, what is the Tánaiste's response to the many women forced to raise money to travel abroad and to those having abortions in their bedrooms with the abortion pill? The Amnesty International report is made much worse when another UN committee dresses down the country for a second time in two years and calls Ireland a developing country because of the unique relationship between church and State.

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