Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate. I thank Senator Catherine Noone and all of the members of the committee and the Citizens' Assembly. I also thank the Minister for his speech, its content and the way he delivered it. However, I have two reservations which have already been mentioned. One is that he gave no timeline and the second is the failure to mention the draconian 2013 legislation.

I fully support the various recommendations of the committee. The Constitution was amended in the 1980s. The 1980s gave us the case of Sheila Hodgers who died on 19 March, prior to the referendum. We knew exactly what we were doing in the country when we passed the referendum.

She died two days after delivering her baby prematurely. Her cancer treatment had been stopped by the hospital which claimed it would harm her pregnancy. She was also denied X-rays and pain relief. That was prior to the amendment. When we passed the amendment it was a time in Ireland when we had the Kerry babies tribunal and when Ann Lovett died, 33 years ago at the end of this month, on 31 January. It was an Ireland that sent Eileen Flynn from her position in a school in Wexford simply because she loved a man whom she subsequently married, with whom she had a child and whose children she raised. It was the 1980s of the moving statues, limited contraceptives and when marital rape was not recognised. It was a time when we had no divorce and many other things were absent.

As somebody who lived through that time as a young woman it was the Ireland of secrets, shame and mass emigration. It was an Ireland that told us that if we stepped out of line and did something we would be punished severely one way or another. Those secrets and that shame came to light and they were overseen by the pillars of society at the time both in the church and outside it. Subsequently, we saw those pillars fall to the ground. I am not here to mention names but one has to mention some names such as those of Fr. Cleary and Bishop Casey, and the subsequent exposure of horrific abuse. We had different types of inquiry, for example, into clerical abuse in Ferns, Cloyne and Dublin. Institutional abuse was examined in the Ryan report. The abuse in families was exposed by numerous inquiries such as those in Kilkenny and Roscommon. The report into the abuse in the Kilkenny incest case was subsequently published in the 1990s. We had the 1980s of secrets, which followed on from previous decades of secrets, and that has continued as previous speakers said right up to today as we grapple with the mother and baby home in Tuam. We still have not learnt to be honest, straight and direct. I am pleased the Minister is nodding his head in relation to that.

I have thanked the Minister and the committee but I wish in particular to thank the courageous women who have brought the inadequacy of the eighth amendment to our attention repeatedly in the most appalling of circumstances. I refer, for example, to the 17-year old who refused to allow herself to be classified as suicidal ten years ago, back in 2007. She was being pushed to say she was suicidal when she simply wanted a termination because she had discovered that she had an anencephalic pregnancy. She was adamant that she was not suicidal and she was forced to go to the High Court. Many cases have arisen since the introduction of the eighth amendment which I do not have time to go into. It was quite clear at the time to me and to other people that it was an appalling amendment to the Constitution. Even as young women we knew there were going to be problems.

In 1992 there was the case which famously became known as the X case. It involved a 14-year old girl who was raped by a family friend. She had to go through absolute torture to get a termination. In 1997 a 13-year old girl was raped and became pregnant. Again, the circumstances were appalling and there was an appalling process involved for her to try to get a termination. The D case took place in 2006. A fatal foetal abnormality was diagnosed and again it was a difficult process to get a termination. I mentioned the 17-year old Miss D case in 2007. In 2010 there was the A, B and C cases. Miss C was pregnant and suffering from cancer. In 2012 in my own city we had Savita's case. Again, there was an absolutely appalling lack of basic treatment but the fact is that more emphasis was put on a foetal heartbeat than on the treatment of obvious sepsis and that should not have happened. In 2016 there was the Amanda Mellet case and in 2017 there was the Whelan case. Over that period we have been forced to confront this issue by very brave women whose health has suffered, some of whom have died. We have also been forced to do so by European court judgments, and a United Nations committee which has clearly told us that what we are doing to our women is inhuman, degrading and amounts to certain torture.

I am here tonight to proudly add my voice to say the amendment simply has to go. It is time to trust women to make decisions. I make my comments in the context of the centenary celebration of women getting the right to vote, albeit a limited right, and 70 years after Noël Browne bravely tried to introduce his comprehensive mother and child scheme. That was not successful. Seventy years later we have a very welcome report from the Oireachtas committee with its ancillary recommendations telling us that in the 21st century, in 2018, we have significant gaps in the provision of maternity services. The Minister clarified that this is the first maternal strategy. We are excluding women from the health service in the 21st century, 70 years after Noel Browne's gallant attempt. Women are excluded from the health service in terms of getting a termination and they are going abroad in their thousands. The figure of 3,265 was mentioned. Those women come back bleeding, having travelled through airports, and we stand over that and exclude them from any follow-up treatment. We should cringe, collectively, that it has taken us this much time and effort from vulnerable women who have had the courage in the most appalling circumstances to stand up, and also our colleagues such as Deputies Clare Daly, Bríd Smith and Mick Wallace, and all the other people who have tried to raise the issue. If I mention names I might forget somebody so I pay tribute to all the Deputies who have brought or attempted to bring Bills before the Dáil to deal with the matter in a humane way. It is time to treat this society as a secular society. Ironically, for those who are totally against abortion, whose opinion I fully respect, the best way to reduce the rate of abortion is to look at those countries which have liberal regimes as they have a very low rate of abortion. For me, that is the most ironic fact in all of that.

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