Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill and stress that the Title of the Bill is sexual and reproductive health and rights, a framework for the introduction of abortion services in Ireland. This year, as previously noted, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the extension of the franchise and votes for women over 30 who were ratepayers. We have thankfully come a long way since then to this legislation, which follows the repeal of the eighth amendment, which was wrong in 1983 and in 2017. I am pleased to see that we as a society have, through the ballot, expressed our desire to see changes that will actually allow women, men and families control over their fertility in a way that is appropriate to their individual and family circumstances.

It is possibly an accident of history that this week, the report, Clann: Ireland's Unmarried Mothers and their Children: Gathering the Data, was published. Anyone who has doubts about the importance and significance of this legislation and what happened to women who were unable to avail of any form of contraception, up to 40 years ago, where they had liaisons and relationships outside of marriage, will see that they had no capacity to control their own fertility. Instead, what happened in this society, as with many other issues, is that they became one of our hidden secrets. They were shut away in mother and baby homes, laundries, orphanages and other institutions. It has only been in the last 20 years that many people, including women and their children, boys and girls who are now men and women, have been able to come forward to find out some of their own history and address some of the issues that arose in post-Famine Ireland. I do not know if the absolute catastrophe of the Famine changed Irish culture. We became an island of incarceration for women who had children and relationships outside of a recognised framework, which is to say that they were not married in a Catholic or Protestant church. Therefore they became social outcasts and, as has been identified in this report and others, the critical social control lever that was exercised was shame. It was shame for the women, children and their families in their local districts and areas. That was why a parish priest could come up, figuratively tap someone on the shoulder and send someone to take the woman away by car or a hackney, with her baby.

At times, due to the kindness and care of families, the women could go home but the babies did not. In many cases, the women were incarcerated, effectively for the rest of their lives. When I went to school in Stanhope Street in Dublin, I ended up, through my adoptive mother, going to visit what was, to me as a small child, a really horrifying laundry full of large machinery where women worked. "Worked" is not a proper description, but "slaved" is. They had no autonomy. I remember one woman who visited us every Tuesday evening. She did not even have a child. It was her misfortune that her father became a widower and busybodies, very often on behalf of local churches, ensured that children such as that could be taken away. This was a woman in her 40s or 50s. After we got a television, she became very fond of some of the programmes on it because they did not have that in the convent, in the laundry. No matter what was on, whether "The Riordans" or something else, I remember clearly that though she was a grown woman, she had to be back at the convent by 9.30 p.m. I know trainee teachers were treated the same in places like Carysfort, and possibly the male teachers in Drumcondra, probably up to the late 1960s. There is a social story here about the Ireland that we were.

Much of the debate on the 1983 referendum was a fraud. It was designed to deny an open secret. In other words, it was a secret that everybody knew about if they were old enough. If they were younger, they maybe listened to the chat around the kitchen and got to know about such things. What is really sad and significant in these stories is that no matter how often one reads or hears them, they remain a monument to the sadness and tragedy that one group of Irish people visited on another group of Irish people. They probably, for the most part, did not intend to be as cruel as much of it was but they were told that somehow this type of behaviour, locking people up, was consistent with a certain form of Christianity.

The only explanation I have, at a social level, is that this was partly an outcome of the disaster of the Famine in Ireland and also being a colonial country where, in effect, we shut down certain things and closed them off.

Turning to the Bill, as other speakers have said, we owe a debt of thanks to all of the doctors, midwives and others involved in women having babies, delivering them safely and going on to have a family and a home life where those babies are cherished and loved. We have that in our maternity hospitals in Ireland, but one element of the services is absent and the Bill is seeking to address that. In that sense, in terms of the rights of women now and in the future, it is important that we pass this legislation.

Points have been made by various Deputies about areas where the legislation could be improved and issues that need to be addressed, including having a detailed debate on conscientious objection. Such debate is good. I welcome any insights people have to bring that would allow us to make the legislation as good as we possibly can. I also welcome the constructive tone of many of the contributions by people whom I am aware did not vote to repeal the eighth amendment. I have also encountered many people who were opposed to repealing the eighth amendment. Quite a few of them asked me to speculate on the reason the vote was so overwhelming. One woman approached me and said: "Joan, what is all this stuff on RTÉ about older people being completely opposed to repeal?" She then pointed to her husband, who is 84 - she is 83 – said that they have five granddaughters, and that they did not want any of them to be in a situation where they felt obliged either to take the boat to England or to face some kind of uncertain future in terms of having a baby in circumstances in which they are not able to proceed with the pregnancy.

What many of the critics of repeal have failed to understand is how practices have changed, so that for the most part we are not talking about surgical abortion or, except in grave situations where the life or health of the mother is threatened or the life of the baby, and the tragedy of fatal foetal abnormality. The latter scenario has affected several people I know who have desperately wanted a baby but it was not to be. We are now talking about medical termination. Let us be clear what that means. I am very grateful to the various doctors and midwives who took part in so many small meetings in houses, community centres and workplaces throughout the country explaining the current custom and practice in maternal care in the context of termination services. I approve of the Minister's arrangement that Dr. Peter Boylan would be available to look at the maternity services in that specific area. That is very important.

One thing that is very worrying is the severely limited availability of scans and MRI technology in many areas outside of Dublin. That is wrong. The budget needs to be progressed in that area in order that people will have as much information as possible, with the objective for the most part of having a healthy, viable baby.

We also need realistic education in schools so that, in particular if teenagers fall pregnant in a situation where they are unable to cope with the pregnancy, they are empowered with the knowledge to get the best care and attention as soon as they can. That is the key to the provision of appropriate services in Ireland that are genuinely available to all women, and to young women in particular who, in the event of not having had an appropriate sex education, are able to access services in a timely way. The discussions have started on the school curriculum and I hope it is realistic in terms of issues that are likely to face young men and young women as they enter into sexual relationships as they mature. That is very important. We need a national conversation in that respect that gives people the knowledge they need to be able to deal with their own decisions in terms of relationships as they grow older. They must be aware of the risks. Many colleges are now doing a lot of education around relationships and consent and the fact that no means no. We can empower young people to be able to both look after themselves and protect themselves and, should they need services, that they know how to access them as early as possible.

It is a milestone for women in Ireland that we will finally have a full service available to women within the not-too-distant future that will support them in the independent lives they wish to lead. It is ironic that during the referendum campaign I met more people who, sadly, had issues around infertility, and they were very anxious to be supported by the State. Nowadays, partly because of the housing situation but also because of social changes, people are getting married and forming permanent relationships later and later. If they want to start a family, very often they must first find appropriate housing to buy, rent or lease and then they must have sufficient resources to be able to bring up a family. That means a lot of pregnancies in Ireland are among women in their late 30s, and that trend is likely to continue for at least the next five years because I do not see a significant number of houses and apartments becoming available for rent or purchase at reasonable rates under current Government policy.

Many of the pregnancies in Ireland are much-wanted pregnancies and one of the distressing parts of the recent debate was the discussions on fatal foetal abnormality. Most Deputies are aware either from family circumstances, friends or others they know of much-wanted pregnancies having to be terminated, the tragedy of having to go to England, for example, Liverpool or London, and bringing home the baby's remains, if they are lucky, in a cardboard box on the ferry.

It is a tragic circumstance. As one young woman put it to me, at a time when she most wanted her family around her she could not have them because they could not go to Liverpool with her. Her partner could go, obviously, but they wanted one of their mothers or an aunt to come with them and maybe one of their fathers to drive them. They wanted family members to be there to hold them at a very difficult time in their lives. I hope the people in our maternity hospitals will now be able to do that, perhaps under the direct care of the physicians they were dealing with during the period when they had hoped it would be a successful pregnancy. They could then get appropriate treatment and would be able to go home as soon as possible to their own beds and mourn their baby.

I have been approached by people who wanted to find a burial place for the baby. Unfortunately, burial plots in Dublin are difficult to get. Many of the Dublin cemeteries will not allow people to pre-buy and we do not necessarily entirely recognise a fatal foetal abnormality like a baby that was delivered in the end. These are all the little practical things that happen to people in this sad situation.

I am really pleased the Bill has come before the House. The Minister and the Taoiseach gave an undertaking that this would be addressed as quickly as possible. The people who voted in the referendum understood that clearly and expected it. I congratulate the Government on bringing forward the legislation so quickly. I hope that it will be possible to put into place the appropriate training, practices and changes in the HSE that will be required. It will be a major change in terms of what our maternity hospitals and institutions will be doing. I really hope it will be possible to do this in the maternity hospitals and institutions.

The whole issue of exclusion is relevant. In the past, if a woman had a baby outside of wedlock or if she was in a relationship that was not a marriage relationship there was a sense of exclusion. I believe we have managed to end that sense of exclusion and now treat people when they need treatment within our ordinary health and maternity services. In due course I believe that will help. Again, going back to families who have experienced fatal foetal abnormalities, there is hope that if they have a subsequent pregnancy, the pregnancy will come to a successful conclusion with a baby being born to the couple.

I welcome, and the Labour Party strongly supports, the legislation. Nevertheless, we will pay detailed attention to any proposals for amendments and issues that require to be addressed. Presumably, these will be discussed in detail on Committee Stage.

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