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

I appeal to the Tánaiste, in the last week of this most historic campaign on the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment, to join me in putting some things to bed with the public, who are continually indicating that there is a degree or level of confusion about what this is about. Will the Tánaiste join me in saying to the population that women's lives matter indeed and that this referendum is not about a licence to kill, as has been indicated by posters, women being murderers, or the wholescale slaughter of babies with disability?

It is about an emotive, sensitive and deeply personal issue related to women's health. In that context, women need to be given the right to make decisions about their lives. The results of a poll published today in The Irish Times were very interesting. They showed that when asked whether they would like the eighth amendment to be repealed, 44% of respondents answered "Yes". However, when asked whether they believed the law in Ireland needed to be changed to recognise a woman's right to choose to have an abortion, 62% of respondents answered "Yes". The confusion has been caused by imagery that is deliberately misleading and false and messaging that is untruthful and makes a mockery of women's lives and the deeply divisive and difficult choices they must often make.

We want to move away from the legacy of the Magdalen laundries, mother and baby homes in Tuam and elsewhere, the shaming and stigmatising of women and the wholesale export and outsourcing of women's healthcare to Britain and elsewhere when they face a crisis pregnancy. We need to endorse the view expressed by Irish people in large numbers that this is about a woman's right to decide. We must provide this clarity in a highly divisive debate in which the issue has been framed in terms of murder and manslaughter and the killing of babies, which is not the case.Later today I will be joined in Buswells Hotel by women who will give testimony about having an abortion for many and various reasons. They include not having a home - as a former Minister with responsibility for housing, the Tánaiste will be well aware of the number of women and children who are homeless; in an abusive relationship, as we know from the statistics for domestic violence and sexual abuse; do not having a decent job; and face the possibility of losing a job. There are as many reasons as there are women.

I ask the Tánaiste to join me in condemning any attempt to portray women as murderers or paint the referendum as being about a licence to kill people with disabilities or babies. I ask him to join me in clarifying the position for the public.

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