Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will start by acknowledging the campaigners for women's rights in the Gallery this evening. The Government may dither and delay and cover itself in shame, to be frank about it, but the campaigners in the Gallery are part of a mass movement in Irish society, which has not only put this issue on the agenda but which will sweep away the eighth amendment and get the job done. If we lived in a country which genuinely and truly respected women and trusted women and the decisions women make, we would have the eighth amendment repealed, we would have legislation in place for a woman's right to choose and we would have abortion provided through the health service without cost and without shame for all who need it. If we lived in a fully democratic society we would go one further and completely separate the church from the State.

This State is almost alone in western Europe in denying women access to widely available abortion services in its own jurisdiction. By the way, the abortion rate in western Europe is 12 per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44, which is the lowest sub-regional rate anywhere on the planet. It is in sharp contrast, interestingly, to areas of the world where abortion is more often than not illegal, such as Africa where the rate is 29 per 1,000 or Latin America where the rate is 32 per 1,000, which is more than two and a half times the western European rate.

One such western European country is the Netherlands. In the Netherlands terminations are legal for up to 24 weeks. They are free for residents of the country and a comprehensive programme of sex education and contraception is in place. In the Netherlands the abortion rate is 8.5 per 1,000. More than 95% of these abortions are in the first 12 weeks, the vast majority around the sixth week. Compare this to Ireland's abortion solution, which means just 68% of Irish residents who had an abortion in England or Wales in 2012 were in the first nine weeks. The comparable figure for residents of England and Wales was 77%. Women travelling from Ireland to England and Wales for abortion services are consistently more likely than UK residents to be at a later foetal gestational age. They are forced to travel, arrange accommodation, arrange child care and take time off. All of this takes time, particularly for women on lower incomes. The Irish solution, far from reducing the abortion rate, results in all likelihood in an increase in later term abortions.

This is just part of this Irish solution to an Irish problem that Fine Gael, the Independent Alliance and Fianna Fáil plan to keep in place for the remainder of this year, for all of next year and for some of the year after, at an absolute minimum. Shame on them all.

The Government parties are standing over a disgraceful situation and they will not be able to hold back the movement for change in this country. It is going to change things despite them.

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