Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Déanfaidh mé mo dhícheall amárach agus i rith na seachtaine seo romhainn.

This is a very simple Bill. It is an amendment to the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013. I wish to pre-empt everything I am going to say with a bit of an explanation. The worst criticism I have had of this Bill has been from those who say it continues to criminalise women for having an abortion. I will give a little bit of history on it. I have tried twice to amend the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act by removing any reference to the criminalisation of women or medical practitioners who may seek to procure an abortion in this country. On both occasions, parliamentary legal advice - not external legal advice or advice from a solicitor to whom my party and I would go to ask for an opinion - has been that it would be unconstitutional because of the eighth amendment. Here, I rest my case. What we really need and the only thing that will end up dealing with all of the complexities of the criminalisation of women and everything else that stems from it, including the likelihood of women who seek an abortion dying in this country because it is illegal to give them one, is a referendum on the eighth amendment.

As we know, the Citizens' Assembly is progressing ahead. We have debated all the ins and outs of that quite a bit. I am sure it will come into the debate again tonight as I understand there is an amendment from the Government to leave the matter in the hands of the Citizens' Assembly. I did try to change section 22 of the 2013 Act in order for it to state it shall not be an offence for a pregnant woman, her advisor, her doctor or other health worker to terminate a pregnancy as long as this is the course of a woman making that decision and with her valid consent. I was told that was out of order and that I would have to try something else.

The Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit and I are moving a simple Bill, which we would rather not be doing. I am going to explain in the few minutes that I have why we are doing it. It is to amend section 22 of the 2013 Act to state that a person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable to a fine of not more than €1. That sounds like I am being facetious or trivialising it. I am not. Au contraire. I am trying to deal with abortion and the stigma that lies around it in this country.

It has been a strange day insofar as there has been a convergence and a link made between the Grace case, which we just discussed, the Tuam babies, this Bill, and indeed, to some extent, the struggle for a mother, Ms Vera Twomey, to get health services for her child. It has been a day full of the discussion about the rights of women in this country and their control over their own lives. I believe the link between all of these is that for too long we have had a kind of coherent enterprise between the State and the church to dominate and control women's lives. The control of our reproductive lives is unbelievably out of order in the 21st century. In particular, that control has manifested itself as a war on the poor and on working-class women in the recent past and to this day. The last respectable form of that oppression in this country is the eighth amendment and the denial of women in this country of the control of their own fertility and decision-making over their own lives.

We are trying to begin the process of decriminalising women's choices. The Bill is simple and it is not complicated. It is not trying to say abortion must remain criminal but only arguing for a small sentence. The reason for the Bill is that, in the very recent past and not very far away from us - probably 60 to 65 miles or 80 km to 90 km away - three women were arrested and charged before the courts in Northern Ireland for procuring the abortion pill. Somebody might say that this Bill does not deal with backstreet abortions. The form of backstreet abortions, if it can be called such in this country, is the abortion pill, which is safe as declared by the World Health Organization and is increasingly being sought by young women as a form of control of their fertility and to deal with crisis pregnancies. In the North, three women - a mother of an under-age child and two women who self-aborted using the pill - have been before the courts. In the North, they could face a life sentence. That is not much different to a 14-year sentence, which is what they could face in this state. That is what the Act of 2013 states. Section 22 states:

(1) It shall be an offence to intentionally destroy unborn human life.

(2) A person who is guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years, or both.

(3) A prosecution for an offence under this section may be brought only by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

In a very twisted and silly way, the Taoiseach in a response to my question during Leaders' Questions about the Tuam babies said that he could not support our Bill because "if, for instance, somebody kicks his pregnant partner and kills the baby she is carrying, he is to be guilty of a fine." Coming from the leader of a country, it is really disgraceful and silly in a way to equate the attempt in this Bill with an attempt to decriminalise grievous bodily harm and assault. That is not what I am saying. What we want to do is decriminalise abortion for women, not to decriminalise grievous bodily harm or assault on women. That is what that amounts to.

It is alarming that in a court recently, a man who beat up his partner very badly in front of her children was referred on for the possibility of doing community service. That has nothing to do with the legislation that I am trying to alter tonight. The process of decriminalising women has to begin before we wait forever for the Citizens' Assembly to make its adjudication, for the outcome of that and then, if and when, for the possibility of a referendum on the eighth amendment. It has to begin. Every day in this country, at least three young women access the abortion pill and therefore at least three young women are faced with a potential 14-year sentence hanging over them. This country is changing. The message has to be sent out through measures like this that we are turning our backs on the days of the killing fields of Tuam, on the Magdalen laundries and on the days when the church in this country dominated our lives by being obsessed with our pregnant bodies. We cannot allow a sentence of 14 years to remain, while everybody else navel gazes and looks at how we are going to deal with it.

To those Deputies who have indicated to me already that they are either going to abstain or vote against the Bill but particularly to those abstaining, the Minister, Deputy Katherine Zappone, and the Independents in government, I ask them to think. What amendment would they table to this Bill that would satisfy their idea of how women who procure an abortion in the State or who take the abortion pill should be responded to? Should we give them ten years instead of 14? Should the fine be €10 or €100? I ask them to tell me and amend accordingly. Let us see then what we can come out with.

If the Government does not agree with the criminalisation of women, it should support this Bill. Those who tell me they are abstaining because of legal opinion, such as those in Sinn Féin, should note there are all sorts of legal opinions one can get. I could go down the road and pay a solicitor for another set of legal opinions. The Deputies are really saying they are going to leave women, particularly young women, susceptible to a hefty sentence while we wait for a reversal of the other processes instigated in this House to stall the process of decriminalising abortion, decriminalising women and making our choices freely, legally and safely in this country.

This is not an academic argument because what I describe is happening in Northern Ireland. It is not a question of waiting because the legal opinion suggests this, that and the other; this is reality. I make a special appeal to those who believe it is acceptable to abstain or that we can wait until the Citizens' Assembly has completed its deliberations. If one has been campaigning with us, standing on the street with one's "Repeal" T-shirt and badges and marching and really believes in what one is saying when one protests against the draconian use of legislation against women in this country, one should think twice, vote with one's conscience and not be bound by party restrictions on one's beliefs. If one believes this Bill is not good enough, one should propose amendments. One should not, however, support an amendment that kicks for touch, implying that it is acceptable to continually leave women and their medical advisers with the stigma, threat and chill factor of a 14-year sentence hanging over their lives.

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