Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Ireland is changing. When I was growing up, the Catholic Church was the predominant institution. For young people today, that institution is greatly weakened. In 1983, the Catholic Church was a very powerful institution. Ireland is a very different place from what it was in 1983. Social issues that dominated the country for so long, such as divorce and gay marriage, have become commonly accepted.

In the 35 years since the referendum, women were shamed terribly by the State and the church. The history of those 35 years has been barbaric and an affront to women's health and rights. There has been a litany of abject failures that have imprisoned women and let women die for the sake of religious and political fundamentalism. The movement for choice is as powerful as it ever was. Women will no longer tolerate the hypocrisy of being second class citizens in this State. This movement has largely never been able to challenge the Constitution in respect of a constitutional right to choice. It has been a prisoner of that concept.

Those who trivialise and demonise a woman's right to choose ultimately do not trust women to choose. I trust women to make the decision on what is right for them and their families. Only women can make that choice. Over 100 women in the constituency I represent travelled for an abortion last year. At present, women can be sent to jail if they are in possession of the abortion pill. If that sounds outlandish, in the North women in possession of abortion pills and people who prescribe them can be dragged through the courts and sent to jail. That is absolutely barbaric.

The eighth amendment belongs to the past. A woman's right to choose belongs to the present and the future. I appeal to those who are yet to decide. They can transform this debate and empower everybody on the side of the debate for getting rid of the eighth amendment to the Constitution. It is time to give women and citizens a chance to make that decision on our Constitution. The party I represent has a proud history of representing women and this issue. It is an issue that can be divisive, but it is time for this generation to make the decision and have a referendum once and for all on giving women the right to choose.

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