Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister suggested it in his speech.

Four years on, that horrific situation has not been dealt with. We can and will, unfortunately, have more Savitas, unless there is a change.

I remind Deputy Kate O'Connell that she ran on a pro-choice platform in the general election. Tonight was her first opportunity since she came into the Dáil to actually vote for a motion which vindicates that stance. She used it instead to politically attack the left. I am not sure when she will ever be able to vote for a repeal the eighth amendment motion which does not come from the left. No other party or other force has championed it except left individuals, Independents and parties. She just displayed her snobbery and true colours tonight.

What magical formula is the Citizens' Assembly going to come up with? We are told to wait for it to find some magical formula to persuade middle Ireland, which we keep hearing about, to move its position. We can have discussions in the exact same way the Citizens' Assembly will. Apparently, however, it will wave its magic wand.

I want to correct one point made earlier. We do actually have abortion in Ireland. That is the main difference with the last major debate on this in 1983. Up to 1,000 abortions take place in women's bedrooms in Ireland. Findings published in a medical journal last week showed three women a day contact Women on Webalone, just one agency, to access safe but illegal medical abortion pills. Up to 97% of them said after that they felt they had made the right choice while 98% of them said they would recommend it to others. Up to 70% felt relieved. It is not the case that women feel guilty or it was a trauma or a tragedy. In terms of the gestation of the pregnancy, it was less than seven weeks for 79% of them. We have to recognise that Women on Weband other services like it are being accessed by women mainly with children.

10 o’clock

The impression is given that if we allow abortion we will have single women, after a Saturday night out, turning up at their doctor's surgery the following week demanding an abortion. Women have abortions for a myriad of reasons and the majority of them have children.

I thank the Deputy for giving ladies the right to travel. I would like to correct the Deputy because ladies were not given the right to travel: people marched for the right to travel. Following the horrific incarceration in this country of a 14 year old rape victim in 1992 there were massive demonstrations, with many girls bursting out of their schools against the wishes of their head nuns and so on. I took part in those demonstrations, as did many other Deputies on this side of the House. Nothing is granted by the Dáil. Rights are never granted: rights are fought for and won. The lesson from today's debate is that the Dáil is now a conservative brake on progress. Even the so-called liberals who people might have thought would bring forward the repeal movement have not brought it forward. They are acting now in the same way. We have to build the left in this country. We may not surpass Fine Gael but we have to build a left majority in this country if we want the type of rapid change that is needed. It certainly will not be the case that Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil will take on the church in this country. That is absolutely ruled out, both parties having lived in its pockets.

See this speech in context