Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 6, between lines 29 and 30, to insert the following:"(2) No public moneys shall be provided by the Oireachtas to pay for the carrying out of a termination of pregnancy other than a termination of pregnancy in accordance with section 10or 11in a case where there is a risk to the life of the pregnant woman.".

These amendments ensure that taxpayers' money is not used to fund abortions except where there is a risk to the mother's life. They seek to modify sections 26 and 27, which were inserted only after the referendum had taken place and, therefore, would not even have been seen by those who read the Bill before the referendum. They place abortions among special categories of health services not to be charged for. The Minister has said he does not want cost to be a barrier. That is an artful way of telling people that they should have to pay for the State-sponsored elimination of the most vulnerable. We know cost is a barrier to most things, including things that no one would have a moral objection to paying for and, unfortunately, including even forms of necessary medical treatment. Surely it cannot be that when it comes to the taking of an innocent human life, we are all to be forced to pay for it in every case and for any reason.

I ask Members to think about that and what it is we are talking about forcing people to pay for here. This is not health care. Real health care does not have a victim but abortion does. I want to mention a few facts about the victim who is most affected by it, the one for whom it is the end. These facts are from the embryology textbook, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryologyby Drs. Moore, Persaud and Torchia. I mention this because at times some important points about embryology such as the commencement point of the heartbeat have been denied to suit a particular agenda. She or he has a heartbeat which begins to beat at three weeks after conception. Eight weeks after conception, the baby's fingers and toes are distinct and separated and purposeful limb movements first occur at this time, though it is too early for the mother to feel them. He or she has hands and feet, eyes, ears, arms and legs. What is to happen to that baby? What are we expected to compel citizens to pay for? We are told that after nine weeks the abortions will be surgical abortions. Section 14 allows abortion for any reason up to 12 weeks.

Dr. Anthony Levatino, an obstetrician who performed 1,200 abortions before changing to a pro-life stance, has explained how a surgical abortion is done up to 13 weeks. He says:

The suction is then turned on, with a force ten to twenty times more powerful than your household vacuum cleaner. The baby is rapidly torn apart by the suction, and squeezed through this tubing down into the suction machine.

Later abortions, which are provided for in this Bill on broad grounds, particularly under section 11, are even more shockingly brutal. How can we tell people that they must fund such things? How could that be anything other than an abuse of public power? The position of some in government amounts to this: as a condition of being allowed to live and work in this State, they are to be forced continuously to pay for the infliction of fatal acts upon the most vulnerable who have done no wrong. The despicable injustice of forcing people who cherish human life to pay for babies to be destroyed is simply too plainly obvious for any of us not to see it. People deeply upset by seeing this State become a place where the law provides for the deaths of the innocent and defenceless should not have foisted upon them the added pain of having their taxes fund that killing.

There are many different views on whether and in what circumstances abortion should be lawful but it is surely reprehensible to force people to pay for the infliction of fatal acts upon innocent, helpless, little human beings. We should not talk only of the "No" voters in this regard. No one, whether he or she voted "Yes", "No" or abstained, should be put in such a horrendous position. It should be remembered that the sections on taxpayer funding for abortions were not even in the Bill before the referendum. Even those who knew everything that was in the Bill could not have seen them. A poll conducted since the referendum found that, excluding "Don't knows", 59% of adults, including 44% of "Yes" voters, opposed the taxpayer funding plan. Can the Government not find compassion in its heart for people who just want to live their lives without continuously financing abortions?

Not providing taxpayer funding for abortion will also save lives. In June 2017, the British Government announced that it would fund abortions for women resident in the North of Ireland. The official report outlining abortion statistics for England and Wales in 2017 notes that there has been an increase in the number of women from the North of Ireland having an abortion in England and Wales since the funding announcement. The volume in quarters 3 and 4 of 2017 increased by 42% and 62% respectively compared to the same quarters of 2016. That is no surprise where a state, knowing the deep and enduring hurt it may cause, presents vulnerable women in crisis with a false, easy answer and then adds that it is free.

A review of numerous peer-reviewed studies in the USA has shown that the absence of public funding for abortion reduces the number of abortions which take place. The amendment suggested here is similar to the Hyde amendment, a provision in federal US law which prohibits, with very few exceptions, the federal funding of abortions. The Hyde amendment has been enacted repeatedly for many years with bipartisan support since its introduction in 1976. Most states have enacted laws along the same lines as the Hyde amendment. Dr. Michael J. New notes that the Hyde amendment has been passed every year since 1976 as a rider to the annual federal labour, health and human services appropriations Bills and says it has typically enjoyed support and been signed into law by both Democrat and Republican US Presidents.

The very fact that the Minister, Deputy Harris, speaks of cost as a barrier shows that he realises free abortions will mean more abortions. Whether he wants to realise that is another matter. We need to be given fair play. As the Minister knows, hundreds of thousands of women voted "No" and, like me, they are taxpayers with a conscience.

See this speech in context