Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Quinlivan, Tóibín and Munster.

Dr. Rhona Mahony, Master of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, stated it was clear that the eighth amendment did not protect the best interests of mothers or babies. Obviously, we need to remove the eighth amendment from the Constitution, but I do not think we can underestimate the job of work we have ahead of us in order to do this.

I welcome the chance to speak about this issue again. I spoke about it a number of weeks ago, but I always welcome any opportunity we have to raise the issue of repealing the eighth amendment. Whenever I speak about the issue, I always refer to three things - trust, choice and respect. We have to trust women to make choices about their lives and bodies and need to respect the choices they make. For me, it is as simple as that.

I take the opportunity to appeal to those who are genuinely conflicted on whether they are in favour of repeal. Many have very strong views on the issue, some of whom are in my family and among my friends. I strongly appeal to them to look back at the hearings of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution and the factual medical evidence presented at it. I do not think the issue should be debated on social media, including Facebook. People need to inform themselves of the facts of the issue. I also appeal to people to put themselves in the shoes of women who are facing crisis pregnancies. Imagine if it was you or your wife, daughter or sister or a close friend. How would you feel about the matter then? The reality is that every day 12 women or girls in this country have an abortion, nine of whom travel to England, while at least three that we know of - these are just the statistics of which we know - risk their health and a 14-year prison sentence by taking illegal abortion pills ordered online with no medical advice or supervision.

We cannot ignore this issue any longer; we cannot pretend it is not happening, but, most importantly, we cannot continue to ignore women and their health needs any longer. That is why we need to hold the referendum on the thirty-sixth amendment of the Constitution and repeal the eighth amendment. I again appeal to Members of this House who are supportive of repealing the eighth amendment on the job of work we must do to get out there to ensure that it is the facts of the matter that people will discuss, not some of the nonsense we have seen on social media from some on the other side of the campaign.

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