Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing my time with Deputy Jan O'Sullivan.

The Labour Party will be supporting this legislation to bring about a referendum on repealing the eighth amendment of the Constitution. The very introduction of the eighth amendment was opposed by the Labour Party in 1983. We were very much alone at that time. The Constitution was never the place for such a proposal. Unfortunately, our history since 1983 has proven our stance to have been the correct one. The last time we voted on this matter, Labour Deputies were bound by a programme for Government that had prioritised legislation for the X case, which we delivered. At other times we could not, as a party, vote on any Bills that we knew, unfortunately, to be unconstitutional.

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Today is very different. On the first occasion - in opposition - on which we are presented with a Bill on the eighth amendment which we know absolutely to be constitutional, we are very happy to support it. In fact, we feel very much obliged to support it.

The Labour Party has always been to the fore on progressive social change in this country and we will continue to support such change. Whether it was in the context of amending labour laws, changing the law on contraception, decriminalising homosexuality or bringing in divorce, it was very much our party that pushed for these developments. Even recently, the campaign for marriage equality happened because the Labour Party insisted - on foot of a commitment in the previous programme for Government - that it should. What a joyous and hopeful campaign it was. Of course, the Labour Party did not alone persuade the massive majority of the people to vote in favour of marriage equality in the referendum. That was done as a result of conversations across a range of areas - at breakfast tables, in pubs and on social media. However, the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment will be much different. Unlike marriage equality, accessing an abortion is certainly not something to be celebrated. We will all need to be conscious of this as the debate unfolds. We will also all need, collectively, to respect everyone's views and to stop pigeonholing people into two camps, namely, pro-life and pro-choice. I was very much taken by a social media post recently by somebody who said that a recent pro-choice march was just the usual suspects, "liberal students from Dublin universities, Trotskyites", and a reply by Emma Burns, a 42 year old mother of two and a disability rights advocate, who started the hashtag #KnowYourRepealers.

Times have moved on. There is something to be said in normal circumstances for the examination of this issue in a complex way though the Citizens' Assembly. If the Government this time around had proposed to re-establish the Constitutional Convention and apply a tight deadline to this work, we would have possibly supported it. However, preventing all politicians from being members of the assembly was a mistake and the deadlines that have been set are intended to push this item down the road so that the Government will not have to deal with it. The Minister's cop-out tonight in the amendment is, I believe, an embarrassment for him, for Fine Gael and for the Independents who support this Government. It is wrong to prevent the House, the Legislature of the people, from even voting on the Bill passing Second Stage. I am very disappointed by the Government and, in particular, the Minister, Deputy Harris, and certain Independent Ministers who have been very vocal on this issue previously. Obviously, they do not fancy having a referendum during their period in Government.

It is a fact that, on average, 12 women a day travel to the UK for abortions. This fact cannot be ignored by any of us. For those with financial resources the journey is an arduous one. For many migrants or those living in poverty it is a journey they cannot make at all. That is wrong. It is also wrong that no woman currently of child-bearing age has had the chance to vote on these laws. If a woman or girl is raped or is the subject of incest and becomes pregnant as a result, our laws force her to carry that unwanted pregnancy to term. If a crisis pregnancy causes a woman acute medical distress, we tell her she simply must live with it. This is simply barbaric. The Labour Party supports repealing the eighth amendment and then legislating properly and comprehensively to deal compassionately with the situations I have just outlined. It is denial of bodily autonomy and it inflicts real damage on real women - our sisters, daughters, nieces and friends. They are the people the eighth amendment really hurts.

We did not expect the Government to seek to use archaic parliamentary procedure to try to block a vote on this Bill. In truth, however, we do not expect the Bill to pass because of the stance the Government has taken. However, the Labour Party will vote for it and we call on all others across this House to do likewise so that we can move towards a repeal of the eighth amendment and a compassionate settlement that works for the women and for the people of Ireland.

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