Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I genuinely welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I know we often start our contributions with a line like that but I feel strongly and passionately about this. It is probably one of the most important issues that we will ever discuss in the Chamber. My colleague, Deputy Crowe, touched on the history of how the State has treated women. If we look at how we have treated women and children over the years, unfortunately, we do not have a good track record. There have been several apologies on behalf of the State over the past number of years, including to the survivors of the Magdalen laundries. The Taoiseach rightly apologised to Joanne Hayes yesterday. However, if we are genuinely sorry about how we treated women over many years, then let us take the opportunity to amend the relevant legislation and not just come into the House saying that we are sorry and that it is tragic. Let us do something positive and show women that we want to stand up for them and ensure they have equal rights.

I thank the committee members. They had a difficult job and I do not know how they did it. It was extremely stressful for all of them and, in particular, I thank my own colleagues, Deputies O'Reilly and Jonathan O'Brien and Senator Gavan. The recommendations in the committee's report must be supported and a referendum must be held to remove the clause from the Constitution. The eighth amendment affects more than just a woman’s choice to terminate a pregnancy in Ireland; it goes much further than that and impacts on the provision of health care for women in pregnancy, as it places restrictions on the treatment doctors may provide. That issue sometimes gets lost in the debate. It is about basic health care. We would not deny such health care to a group of men, so why should we deny it to our women?

The ability of doctors to provide the best medical care to pregnant women is often hindered by their fear of prosecution. They should be able to make clinical decisions without facing criminalisation. This criminalisation also impacts on a woman’s decision to access medical care following an abortion. Such criminalisation has not prohibited women from accessing abortions abroad and many people have said that this will continue to happen. Women will continue to travel and to use unsafe abortion methods at home. Many abortions are unsafe with inadequate access to pre and post-abortion services when women access abortion pills online because they have no other choice. I cannot imagine what that must be like for a woman alone at home who is extremely vulnerable and scared and who does not know what will happen. When they take these pills, they have no idea what is in them. They have no medical care beforehand and they are terrified to go to a doctor or a hospital afterwards if they need to. This is supposed to be modern Ireland but this practice seems to be a form of torture and a barbaric measure.

Crisis pregnancy is not restricted to one particular cohort of women. When we are dealing with such a pregnancy, women need to be treated in an informed, caring and non-judgmental environment. They need to be given the space, time and respect to have a discussion with their partner, family, friends or whomever they choose, and their doctor. It should be up to them and their doctors and nobody else. We need to trust women to make the best decisions based on their individual set of circumstances. We need to ensure our women are in receipt of the best medical care at all times and the Constitution is an unsuitable place for limiting or regulating health care for any person in any form.

I fully support the recommendations of the committee. I cannot wait to campaign on the referendum and I call on all colleagues here to support it. One of the things that struck me yesterday and today is how many people seem to be in agreement in a positive manner on this issue. It is one of the best debates I have ever witnessed in the Dáil. I urge people who feel like that to come out and campaign, including those listening and watching, because we need to win this referendum. We need to do it for this generation of women and the next. We cannot afford to keep letting down women in this country and we cannot keep coming in to this Chamber and apologising for these things, crying and saying it is terrible and tragic, when we continue to allow it to happen. Let us stand up for the women of this country and ensure we repeal the eighth amendment in the referendum.

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