Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom an deis seo a thapú chun labhairt ar an gceist ríthábhachtach seo atá ag déanamh tinnis don tsochaí le tamall rófhada anuas. Is ceisteanna móra iad ceist an ghinmhillte agus ceist an leasaithe a rinneadh ar Bhunreacht na hÉireann nuair a cuireadh an t-ochtú leasú isteach ann. Tá muidne ar an dtaobh seo den Teach go huile agus go hiomlán i gcoinne an leasaithe sin agus molaimid an tAire as an gcinneadh a ghlac sé féin agus an Rialtas fáil réidh leis an leasú sin. Sa deireadh thiar thall, beimid in ann reachtaíocht a thógáil isteach chun déileáil le na ceisteanna a bhaineann le ginmhilleadh agus sláinte na mban.

I welcome the certainty provided by Wednesday's Supreme Court judgment on the unborn and the Constitution. The judgment paves the way for a referendum on the eighth amendment. People are looking for controlled change of our laws on abortion. People want to protect women's health and well-being and ensure that doctors can care for their patients here in Ireland. This is only possible if we remove the eighth amendment from the Constitution. What will follow after that will be decided by the people but also by this House.

It is clear that society has moved on, as the referendum on same-sex marriage clearly showed. There is an appetite for reform and society demands that the State be in tune with the rights of all of its citizens. We export citizens to access services which many believe the State should be responsible for delivering. We must have equality in health care between women and men in the State but we will not have it as long as the eighth amendment remains in place. A woman should not lose the right to health care simply because she is pregnant. Under the eighth amendment, women lose that right when they become pregnant. I trust women to make decisions that will affect them; the eighth amendment does not.

We must be clear in all of the hysteria that will flow from this debate. While I respect those who have an alternative or a different view to me, I have heard extreme views, from some in this Chamber and some outside, and those extreme views do not have any place in the debate that will happen over the next number of weeks.

We should be clear that no woman in the State will be forced to have an abortion - not one, not ever. I will campaign to have the eighth amendment repealed and will stand shoulder to shoulder with all the women in Ireland who want to be treated with respect and who want equality and choice and control over their bodies. This is what we should do.

It is time to right a fundamental wrong that occurred in 1983. It is time for a human-rights based Constitution that acknowledges women as full people. The reality is that for as long as the eighth amendment is in place, women will continue to be second-class citizens in their own State. There are other sections of the Constitution that also need to be removed to ensure that women are treated in this State as full citizens and not second-class citizens as the Constitution would have them.

In the past, this was a State in which the Catholic Church held sway over all in society, or at least tried to. One need only look at the disgraceful and horrific treatment of the women and children who were incarcerated in Magdalen laundries and the mother and baby homes to see how the State and religious institutions persecuted and oppressed women. Let us not be fooled into thinking that somehow women have all escaped this ill treatment and persecution by the State; they have not. The eighth amendment is one of the biggest obstacles in the State that we must overcome in order to achieve true equality for women.

I commend the women who have continued the struggle for equality during the decades. It was certainly not easy. They were vilified by the media, by religious institutions and at the time by much of the political establishment, and some still vilify them to this day. I also commend the new generation of young women who have taken up the fight. We would not be having this debate if it were not for their activism, courage and campaigning.

My heart goes out to the women from every city, village and town across Ireland who have had to make the lonely journey to England to avail of something which is recognised in most states as a fundamental right. I have spoken to many of them over the years and they have explained to me how they have been demonised by some commentators and campaigners, and that is shameful.

The eighth amendment was inserted in the Constitution 35 years ago and a generation of women of child-bearing age have not been given a say on an issue which affects them. It did not stop Irish women having abortions. All it did was export the issue to Britain which is what the conservative elements of our society have always done. Between January 1980 and December 2016, at least 170,000 women and girls travelled from this State to access abortion services in another country, mostly in Britain. Between those years, based on the British Department of Health and Social Care statistics, at least 168,000 women and girls who accessed abortion services in Britain provided Irish addresses. In 2016 alone, 3,265 women and girls gave Irish addresses at British abortion services and that is obviously an underestimation as not all women provide their Irish addresses when they attend abortion clinics in England. Also, they do not all travel to England. Some go to other countries in Europe, such as the Netherlands.

A 2016 report shows that 1,642 abortion pill packages were sent to Ireland in a three-year period between 2010 and 2016. That was the figure supplied by just one provider of the pill. In other words, thousands of abortions have occurred in Ireland in the past eight years due to the use of the abortion pill. We have abortion in Ireland. We just do not legislate for it and provide the proper medical supports that are required and are provided as of right in other countries, and all because an amendment to the Constitution 35 years ago that should never have been inserted into it. There are lessons there for legislators.

The Constitution is supposed to be there to protect citizens, not to box them into a corner or to force them out of the country. All too often politicians are too scared to legislate and they go running to the Constitution to absolve themselves of their responsibility as legislators. We can no longer do that, especially when it comes to abortion. We have the duty. We have the responsibility, not just to pass the legislation before us but also to go out there and explain to the public why the eighth amendment needs to be repealed and that we, as legislators representing the Irish people, can be trusted to bring about legislation that will bring us into the modern world and to protect and respect women.

Research undertaken by the HSE's crisis pregnancy programme in 2010 showed that 87% of women in Ireland who had an abortion stated it was the right outcome for them. Of course, it is possible to regret having an abortion. It is possible to experience feelings of regret or loss afterwards and I do not wish to erase the experience of women who do. However, it is also possible to feel a sense of relief and closure on having an abortion. We heard repeated earlier, from other spokespersons and others in the Chamber, stories of rape and incest. When one thinks of a young woman or a girl who has suffered horrifically by a rapist, I can guarantee she will feel closure and a sense of relief not having to carry to full term the product of a rape or incest. Similarly, it is possible to regret having placed a child in adoption, having adopted a child, having given birth or not given birth, or not having the choice not to give birth. Such is the variety of human experiences and emotions, significantly restricting women's access to abortion provokes feelings of depression and anxiety and this increases the risk of suicide in pregnancy. This burden is merely made worse by the isolation and stigmatisation felt by these women who are compelled to travel abroad for access to safe, legal abortion services.

In terms of maintaining the status quoof exporting the State's abortion services and needs to Britain, there are a few issues to bear in mind. The first is financial. A trip to Britain for an abortion can cost over €1,000. For many this is a prohibitive amount of money, and not something that they can raise easily. Women have had to borrow from friends and family, or take out loans from the bank. Many women who cannot raise the money resort to desperate measures to end their pregnancies.

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Without the support of the Abortion Support Network which helps many women to raise the money they need for their abortion, there would be many more deaths from botched abortion attempts.

The second matter is legal status. For many migrant and refugee women, travelling outside Ireland for an abortion is impossible owing to their legal status. Many of them arrive in Ireland unaware of its strict abortion laws until it is too late. The horrific case of Ms Y in 2014 showed what happened when people who were unable to travel were forced to carry a pregnancy against their will.

The third issue is child care. For Irish women seeking an abortion in Britain, organising child care is an issue. Many women cannot tell people that they are travelling for an abortion. If they cannot arrange for someone to mind their children while they travel abroad, they will not be able to go.

The fourth matter is health. Abortion is legal in Ireland only where there is an immediate risk to the life of a pregnant woman. This means that women who need an abortion for health reasons must still travel. If a woman has a condition which limits her mobility or means that she cannot fly, it is a barrier to travel.

It is time to hold a referendum on the eighth amendment and I will certainly vote in favour of the repeal Bill. I will also certainly campaign in the next number of weeks to repeal the eighth amendment. It is time the issue was dealt with and that the women of Ireland had their voices heard.

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