Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

People talk about their credibility being questioned. As one of the proponents of the 12-week limit and as someone who was a member of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, I think it is important to say why was proposed. There were several specific reasons for putting the 12-week limit in place. The backdrop is that the Citizens' Assembly proposed 22 weeks in most contexts. The committee considered the evidence that was presented to it and we made our individual judgments on the basis of that evidence. Having listened to much of the debate, particularly the medical evidence, most but not all members of the committee proposed that 12 weeks, the first trimester, would be a time limit in the gestational periods when terminations could take place without restriction. In other words, if a woman or a girl requested a termination up to 12 weeks, it would be granted under medical supervision. One aspect of the debate focused on the issue of rape and how defining a rape would require a conviction and so on. We believe that we should trust a woman, which I expect all of us in this Chamber do. That was one reason. The other was that women find themselves in very difficult situations for many reasons, and we will not judge those reasons but they are many and varied, individual and personal. We decided a termination should be granted, if a woman requested it, up to 12 weeks.

The committee considered disability as well and went to great lengths to assess this as a grounds for termination, bearing in mind the Citizens' Assembly had recommended that a termination could be sought in respect of a disability. What we said - this view was endorsed, regardless of whether people in this House or elsewhere accept it - was that it was central to the debate during the referendum campaign. Those who opposed the referendum were very clear in bringing it to the fore in the debate. Let us be honest about that.

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