Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Repeal of the Eighth Amendment) Bill 2016 and commend Deputy Ruth Coppinger for bringing it forward. I confirm my support for it. I am old enough to have opposed and voted against the eight amendment in 1983, believing then as I do now, that equating the life of the mother with that of a foetus was fundamentally unsound and would be detrimental to the health and lives of women and that it would have unforeseen, as well as entirely predictable, consequences. We have had a number of referendums and legal challenges as a result. Some of the unforeseen consequences include restricting the right to travel to another state and the freedom to provide or obtain information on services lawfully available in another state. It was always entirely predictable that the formula used in the eighth amendment would produce risks to the health, well-being and lives of expectant mothers. Sadly, that has proved to be the case during the years. The issue is, of course, sensitive and controversial, but regardless of one's own views on termination, it is important that citizens be allowed to have a say by way of a referendum on the issue. I believe, in particular, that the issues of fatal foetal abnormalities, inevitable miscarriage, the life and health of expectant mothers and rape and incest must be addressed urgently.

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