Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on one of the most important issues that has come before this House, the report of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. I also thank the Oireachtas Members who gave their time to the committee, and I know this was very difficult. I was not a member of the committee but from the outset I engaged with the process by reading as many of the transcripts and watching as many witnesses as I could. I read both the majority and minority reports over Christmas. We should be clear there was not a consensus in the committee.

I would like to continue the respectful debate of this very emotional matter. Any modern democracy should be capable of debating this in a respectful way, trying to address genuine concerns while preserving the life of the unborn child. As a Fianna Fáil Deputy I will state my position. I am thankful I am in a party where I can express this and follow a vote of conscience. It is very important to me and I have been consumed by the topic for quite a while. I accept my position will differ from others. I accept that and I hope others will accept my position. I made my position clear before I ever became a Deputy here in the 32nd Dáil. My local people know how I stand. I welcome the opportunity today to put my position clearly on the record of the Dáil. I want to continue to support the unborn child's place in the Constitution. I am against repealing the eighth amendment. I have always supported the holding of a referendum. We live in a democracy and people are entitled to a vote and a say on this. I accept it is 35 years since people got the opportunity to vote on this. I never got the opportunity to do so.

The committee recommended that the law should be amended to permit termination of pregnancy with no restriction as to reason - I have grappled with those words - provided it is availed of through a GP-led service, delivered in a clinical context as determined by law and licensing practice in Ireland, with gestational limits of 12 weeks, or three months. I keep going back to the phrase "with no restriction as to reason". I will be honest in saying I cannot understand how anybody could propose "with no restriction as to reason" in terminating a 12-week-old baby being carried by a mother.

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