Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Reifreann an-stairiúil is ea an reifreann seo. Is reifreann stairiúil é do mhná na hÉireann agus do dhaoine óga na tíre seo. Tá rogha againn sa reifreann seo idir dul chun cinn a dhéanamh nó fanacht sa dorchadas go deo.

It is really important that we understand that this referendum is about making a choice about what kind of country we want to live in. Do we want to move forward or do we want to stay in the dark ages, which I believe is best represented by the opinion of the Catholic bishops? I am not against Catholics or any religion, I would probably risk my life to defend anyone's right to practice the religion of their choice, but the religion of their choice is their business and their business alone. When the Catholic bishops preach that abortion is murder and that we must oppose it in all cases, even in cases of rape, incest and in heartbreaking situations where a woman is told that she is carrying a child that will not live, and they say it is still wrong, that is what we must move beyond.

When I was in an abortion clinic in 1984, just after the referendum, I met a woman from Shankill. She was pregnant with her seventh child. She was poor and had struggled to get the money together to go to Liverpool for an abortion. She cried her eyes out to me before and after that abortion. I became her best friend in that clinic. The problem was not that she had to terminate the pregnancy of her seventh child, but that she had gone to confession before she went to Liverpool to tell the priest what she was about to do. He told her that she was committing a mortal sin and would go to hell. However, she had to make a decision for the other six children; would she live for them or would she die in pregnancy, because the doctor told her that she would not live through a seventh pregnancy. She made the decision to live for her six children and risk going to hell. I am delighted she made that decision and I comforted her by saying that I knew a firefighter who reared four boys, four very angry young men, who now live in this country. He reared them on his own, working through shifts and doing his best to rear the kids and guide them the right way, because his wife's doctor also told her that she could not carry through a fifth pregnancy or she would die. Her priest also told her that she would be committing a mortal sin if she terminated the pregnancy, and she made the opposite choice and she died. That man reared four angry boys, who missed the hell out of their mother, on his own. That is the sort of choice that we face in this country. We either move forward out of that dark, dark age or we stay in it. Worse still, it could get even darker because those who want to force women not to be able to make choices about their lives will be upbeat and confident in saying, for example, that they could arrest women for acquiring the abortion pill over the Internet. Maybe they could do what they did in the North of Ireland and arrest the mother of a young girl who procured an abortion pill for her. Let us think about the confidence that would grow on the side that wants to do us down, and do our gender and our rights down.

Like Deputy Coppinger, I was on the streets last night with the people who were marching. It was so uplifting and it really does contrast the dark ages with the future. The vast majority of the people who were out marching last night for repeal were young men and women; young, passionate and determined. This is about their future. I am gone past my sell-by date, as are many people in this Dáil. We have to think about them. Those who want to stay in the dark ages also bear a responsibility. Please do not do this to other women in this country ever again. My fear is that if we do not stick together and make sure that we confidently get rid of the eighth amendment, we will push women back into a more severe position. If I was young again, I would not want to live in this country after 29 May, or whatever the date of the referendum, if the eighth amendment is still in the Constitution. I would be gone on the next plane or boat and would stay away because it augurs really badly for the future of this country. The future is about equality, it has to be. We saw how it was celebrated after the same-sex marriage referendum was won. Equality must also be about women. It was International Women's Day yesterday and right across the world women are rising up and saying they are not taking this crap. From the #MeToo campaign to the demand for gender pay equality, a revolution is happening where women are saying they will not tolerate being second-class citizens. That is what the eighth amendment does to women in this country, it puts us into a category that we do not have equality and we will never have equality so long as it remains.

I want to say to those outside who support me on this, that when they go out knocking on doors during this campaign, they should be absolutely confident that they do so on an open door because we are talking to generations who have been through the dark ages. They will be talking to people who know about the bishops' cover-up on sex abuse scandals, only last week one of them, Bishop McAreavey in County Down, had to resign. Issues relating to the Magdalen laundries and sex abuse scandals are all baggage that we have in this country because we have a problem with sex and sexuality and with women's freedom and equality. We have to get over ourselves and move on. It is a huge challenge to us and one which the younger generation and the women in this country will stand up to and meet.

We will go through a difficult day today and a difficult period in the coming weeks in the debates. I want to say to people in this House that it is not on to use this issue to play political games. We have to get serious. If Members are on different sides, stand up and say so but they should not absent themselves from the Dáil or try to demand quorums or get up on their feet to kick up a stink in an effort to filibuster and delay. Let us get on with the business of putting the referendum to the people and let them decide. This will be hugely historic. It is a challenging time for us.

I appeal to the people out there in the movement to work hard to fight to win this referendum. It comes as only one opportunity in a lifetime to do so. It will affect the generations to come. I will shut up now because although I an going to use all of my time I have spoken on this issue so often - I will continue to do so - but I wish to send a message to the women who feel regretful about their own past and the stuff that has happened to them. I will not open up a can of worms for a lot of women. They know themselves what it has been like. They should not be afraid of the church and they should not be afraid of what they are being told by priests. They have their own beliefs and they should be proud of their own beliefs, hold on to them and express them, but not be made to be fearful of them. In making the choice that suits them women should hold their heads up high and know they are doing the right thing by themselves, by their families and by their partners. They are not committing a mortal sin, they will not go to hell and someday the State will recognise that and someday doctors, clinics and medical practitioners will be by their side, will have women's backs and will support them.

I reiterate comments made by Deputy Ruth Coppinger and I repeat it as a sort of plea: those in the State who think that not having proper sex education and not having proper access to contraception is going to help to protect the unborn or sacred life are completely mistaken. We absolutely have to give non-Catholic and non-ethos based sex education to children and we have to make contraception free and safely available to women and men. If we do not do this all we do is create more opportunities and more definite situations where there will be more and more crisis pregnancies. If we want to end crisis pregnancies then we must open up the ancillary issues for complete accessibility for everybody. Many poorer people cannot afford to go to a doctor for contraception and cannot afford to buy the coil and so on. They need it available for free. We need to open up our services and our education so young people can have a healthy, well-rounded and well-informed attitude to their sexuality and their reproductive rights.

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