Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. Repetition could become a problem as we discuss these matters.

Amendment No. 1 seeks to make clear that the Bill is primarily about access to healthcare, not criminalisation. Earlier today, Alison Spillane of the Irish Family Planning Association stated that parliamentarians must take the criminal law out of medical consulting rooms and replace it with a provision guaranteeing access to abortion care.

Amendment No. 2 is a reworked version of the earlier Committee Stage amendment which sought to remove “Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018” as the Title to the Bill and replace it with “Health (Access to Healthcare by Women Seeking Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018”. The earlier amendment tried to highlight that the Bill is, or at least should be, primarily about facilitating access to abortion services. However, there is still much in it that seems to create barriers to access. I acknowledge the Minister's words on Committee Stage regarding the amendment to which I refer, when he spoke of the need to stick with the phrase "Termination of Pregnancy" in the Title due to the fact this is used in the Constitution, as amended by the referendum. This amendment would retain the phrase "Termination of Pregnancy" while also introducing a reference to abortion, specifically “Access to Abortion”, in the Bill. On Committee Stage, the Minister also referred to the broader scope proposed in the phrase "Access to Healthcare by Women Seeking Termination of Pregnancy" and stated that this might open up the scope of the Bill well beyond its intention. I accept his point. However, this reworked amendment seeks to avoid the possible pitfalls the Minister identified on Committee Stage by limiting that scope in the larger term "Health" to a much more specific phrase “Access to Abortion”.

See this speech in context