Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As politicians, we have the job of making decisions on behalf of the electorate on all sorts of important issues. The questions that come before us are rarely as challenging, profound or troubling as the issue of abortion. What will be decided in the coming months will have huge implications for our society for a long time into the future. Thousands of people will be personally affected in their lives, welfare and happiness by what is decided. I must try to speak for the needs of the community I represent and for the good of my society. As a father and grandfather, I must find my voice. In the end, this is about promoting people's happiness and well-being.

It is by considering the happiness and well-being of our loved ones that we can perhaps do our best. My love for my family is unconditional. My love for my daughters is unconditional. I hope I would be there for them in any situation in which they might find themselves. When it comes to crisis pregnancy, that is how any father or mother would feel. We want to be there for our children. I know that I would love and support my daughters no matter what happened to them and no matter what they ever decided. When politicians recite all the relationships they have with women who have made the tragic journey for abortion, I know they mean our daughters, sisters, nieces and friends. However, as a father I feel that the best way I could properly love and support my daughter or any other relation or friend in crisis pregnancy is if I also supported the little child that she was carrying. It is possible that we could want to reach out and care for the welfare of a pregnant, perhaps frightened girl or woman while also caring for the baby which depends on her decision.

That is why I found the Minister, Deputy Harris's speech to be challenging but also sadly lacking in empathy. It is a tragedy that any woman goes abroad for abortion. It is even more tragic when they go for abortion without getting the practical gesture of friendship of support that might have led them to make a different decision. While the Minister is right to remember, county by county, the women who have made the lonely journey, it is wrong of him to dismiss from his memory, county by county, the women who regret ending their pregnancies and the children who did not come back and the damage that it did to many of those women.

It is also wrong that the joint Oireachtas committee and now the Government have failed to acknowledge the obvious, namely, that thousands of lives appear to have been saved by the eighth amendment. Britain allows abortion and one in five pregnancies there results in abortion. Ireland, which excludes abortion, has one in 19 pregnancies ending in abortion, about a quarter of that rate. What does that tell us? What is the reason for this difference if not the difference in our laws? Do all these lives that may have been saved not matter to politicians? It is because they are already born themselves and they do not seem to think it makes a difference whether we have a lot of abortions or relatively few. I am a democrat and, in general, I believe it is a good thing that significant decisions are referred to the people, yet I am troubled by the proposal to ask the people to repeal the eighth amendment. Let us be honest; the majority of politicians here are encouraging people to repeal it.

We still do not know what will replace it.

In 1983, the Irish people voted to recognise the rights of unborn babies and their mothers. It was a resounding victory for human rights. Should we now ask them to exclude some members of society from the enjoyment of human rights? Is that a just or responsible question to ask? I wonder if we are losing our humanity.

There is another problem with asking the people to repeal the eighth amendment, namely, that the political class is asking us to trust it and give it complete power to decide in the future how much abortion we have, and when and how. Are we, as a political class, to be completely trusted on this issue? I hear a lot of talk from politicians who say they have moved on this issue, but it is noteworthy that they seem to have moved in only one direction and that direction, coincidentally, will perhaps make them popular with some of the media.

It also seems that many of us have failed to listen to the stories of people have faced challenging pregnancies or the families of children with disabilities who felt pressure to abort children and are now glad they did not. I understand that everybody in the House has the right to be here. They have been put here by the people. They are right to express their concerns and views. I respect theirs and I expect everybody else to respect mine.

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