Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is difficult, given the context in which this debate is taking place, not to remark on the extraordinary inconsistency of people who oppose women having the right to choose abortion and to control their own bodies and lives on the grounds they are concerned for the life of unborn children when the very same people stood by while babies and their mothers were treated in an absolutely shocking, obscene and abominable way. It gives the lie to that when one looks at the horror of the Tuam babies, the Magdalen laundries and the Bethany Home or at the experience of people in the care of the State who were being sexually and physically abused. It does not add up that the people who allowed that to happen then say they are concerned for the life of unborn children. There seems to be a supreme hypocrisy in all that. The sharp edge of that hypocrisy is a situation where a woman who chooses to try to exercise control over her own body and make choices about whether or not to continue with a pregnancy could be subject to a 14-year criminal sentence. It is beyond belief. That is what this Bill is about. There is a 14-year criminal sentence on the Statute Book for a woman who procures an abortion or abortion pill or for anybody who assists her in procuring those things. It is 14 years in prison. We are not suggesting for one moment that this Bill resolves all the problems around a woman's right to choose or the urgent necessity of a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment, which must be done forthwith as far as we are concerned. It should never have been hived off to a Citizens' Assembly but is a decision the people should have the right to take. It is very important to say that even if the eighth amendment is repealed this will still be in the Statute Book. It is highly possible that the main parties in this country, which have opposed abortion, and the forces who oppose abortion will prevail in achieving a restricted form of abortion rights, which limits it to a very narrow set of circumstances. Any woman who procures an abortion outside of those restrictive circumstances will still be subject to a 14-year prison sentence. We cannot fully decriminalise, as should be the case, and fully and completely remove the obnoxious, abhorrent, criminal stigma the State has put on women who make a choice to terminate a pregnancy because of the eighth amendment. That is why it must be repealed. Even if we repeal the eighth amendment, many women will still be subject or may be subject to a 14-year prison sentence, which is utterly obnoxious and abhorrent. That is what we are trying to draw people's attention to. Whatever else we need to discuss about the repeal of the eighth amendment or about whether women should have the right to choose, as we believe, or whether it should be limited, as others believe, we are asking people to decide whether they believe it is acceptable there is a prison sentence of 14 years for a woman procuring an abortion pill or for doing something in this country that the State acknowledges women do every day in their thousands by going across to Britain to do in another jurisdiction. That is the choice; it is a simple one. I do not see how anybody has sustained, or could sustain, an argument that a 14-year prison sentence is acceptable in any kind of civilised society for a woman who makes a decision about her own pregnancy and life and body. To me, it is simple.

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