Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

1. In page 5, to delete all words from and including “An” in line 5 down to and including “Act 1997” in line 11 and substitute the following:“An Act to ensure that pregnant women may have equitable access to abortion care in a safe and timely manner, and at no cost, and for that purpose to amend the Health Act 1970 and certain other enactments; to make provision for reviews at the instigation of a pregnant woman, or a person on her behalf, of certain medical opinions given in respect of pregnancy”.

Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 relate to the Title and description of the Bill. These are issues on which we have a great deal of discussion, but we still think it is very important that we do give it the attention it needs even at this late stage. The amendment seeks to tweak the language to reflect better the reality of the legislation in the context of the majority vote and the significant mobilisation six months ago of people across the country and, indeed, across generations to repeal the eighth amendment.

There are parts which we welcome such as the repeal of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, which was not fit for purpose, and the provision to make available without charge services for women in relation to the termination of pregnancy. However, there are also parts that are not helpful in the overall sense of trying to establish women's rights which we are trying to amend, which relate to the continued criminality and stigmatisation of abortion by the inclusion of the provision of offences in respect of the intentional ending of the life of the foetus, and also the avoidance of word abortion, which is not mentioned anywhere, and the phrase "access to abortion".

We believe the Minister's Title does not reflect the purpose of the Bill or the intention of the "Yes" vote which was to provide access to abortion within the Irish healthcare system so that women are not forced to travel or buy abortion pills illegally online. The problem with the Bill as drafted is that the only reference to access is in the offences section. Access to health services should mean the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best outcomes for all women, regardless of their geography, economic status or other factors. What we should say in the Title is that people with disabilities, those in direct provision and those in any form of incarceration must be guaranteed access, and this is not mentioned currently. They should get the same care and it requires gaining entry to the healthcare system and finding the information through a number of platforms. They need much more than just a helpline, which we will deal with later. A helpline is not acceptable to everybody, for instance deaf women cannot access a helpline. We need to look at access, which is what the referendum was about. We need healthcare officials to be able to communicate with their patients and so on. The legislation should be about removing barriers to abortion care. Therefore, it is very important that the title reflects the tone of what we are doing here. There was a vote to provide access to abortion.

I know the Minister has said that this is on the advice of the Attorney General who says that it is not in the Constitution so that we cannot use the word, but that is an incredibly weak argument. Legislation does not have to mirror the Constitution: that argument is absolute nonsense. The Constitution refers to the dissolution of marriage yet we have the Family Law (Divorce) Act. Divorce is in our law when it is not in our Constitution, and this is exactly the same thing. The group, Lawyers for Choice, in particular, has been very clear that the term "access to abortion" that we want to include does not create any inconsistency with the Constitution and, if anything, it reflects the reality and is flexible in terms of access. People voted against messing around with ambiguous language that created barriers for women and we think that the Title should reflect that.

The Minister has said that if mention of the foetus is removed, that will remove all protection of the foetus because of the eighth amendment but that is not true. The whole law is framed in the context that the protection of the foetus grows with the foetus, in that we are not providing access to abortion beyond 12 weeks, except in very limited circumstances. There is a whole raft of protections there and they do not need to be specified in the headline as is the case here. It is important, particularly given where Ireland is coming from, that we set the tone correctly up front, and the manner in which it is being done does not reflect what Irish people voted on.

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