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

I am wearing a "repeal" shirt and I hope the censorship that is ongoing with the camera work avoiding showing it will end. A side angle shot is being used. We should not censor the word "repeal" in the Dáil and people should be able to state it. I am wearing it because I have just been on O'Connell Bridge, where thousands of young people in particular and mainly young women are saying they will not wait. They are impatient because it mainly affects them. It is their generation of women of child-bearing age that is affected.

Does the Minister at least agree that banning abortion does not lessen it? In Holland, for example, with the most liberal abortion regime in the world, they have the lowest rate of abortion in the world bar none. The abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol are used all over the world. They are used for 80% of abortions in Finland but a woman in Ireland will get 14 years in jail for accessing them online. Why is the Government intercepting them and preventing women from taking their chances online when it is not willing to legislate?. It is just adding expense, stress, stigma, secrecy and shame. I see the censorship is ongoing. I do not know where the order is coming from but it is outrageous. When will the Minister speak to the Citizens' Assembly about discussing the issue of health as a grounds for abortion in this country?

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