Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I did not have an opportunity to hear that interview but I will make a point of doing so once I have time. I certainly pay tribute to and have a lot of respect for people who are willing to share their personal stories of adversity when it comes to sexual violence and crisis pregnancies. In respect of whether any medicine is available over the counter, that is not a decision for the Government, nor should it be. That decision is made by a body called the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA. It decides whether a medicine should be available over the counter on patient safety grounds. There are some medicines which, if used inappropriately or if taken by a patient who has other illnesses or perhaps allergies, can cause enormous harm. If something is not available over the counter and a prescription only medicine, it is thus for good scientific and medical reasons. I would not like it to be the case that politicians or people in this House were to take that power away from medical experts and into their own hands under any circumstances. We will not be doing that.

As I said in recent days, the all-party Oireachtas committee did not pluck its proposals out of thin air. It considered the evidence very carefully and reached conclusions. Those conclusions, certainly to me and, I think, most Members, make a lot of sense. We risk re-victimising women if in some way we ask them to prove to their doctors or whoever else that they were victims of sexual violence. I certainly would not like that to be our law.

It is, however, important to recognise that Article 43.3.3° - the eighth amendment - is a feature of our Constitution and it will not be possible for this House to legislate for lawful termination of pregnancies in any circumstance if it remains in place. There is a two-step process here.

The first step involves the referendum passing, which would untie the hands of this Oireachtas to change the law, and the second step is for this Oireachtas to change the law, as it should, based on the evidence and based on public opinion.

Fundamentally, this means not trusting politicians but rather trusting women and their doctors. We should trust women in the first 12 weeks of their pregnancy to decide what is best for them and whether or not they want to continue that pregnancy beyond 12 weeks, and trusting doctors to allow it on medical grounds.

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