Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputies should give it further consideration and should consider withdrawing it. We are talking about children who become pregnant. This issue arose a lot during the debate on the repeal of the eighth amendment. The eighth amendment's powerlessness to assist a child of 12, 13, 14 or 15 years who became pregnant, either accidentally or through rape or incest, was most mentioned by people as the reason they voted to repeal it in the numbers they did. I know the movers of this amendment all campaigned on the issue and went from door to door as well. If they have respect for the views of the voters who voted in such significant numbers to repeal the eighth amendment, they must be aware that over and over again, those views hinged on the issue of children. A 12 year old is a child. Someone in this situation has barely passed puberty when she becomes pregnant. What parent would not want to assist that child and what child would not want that parent to be of assistance to her provided, of course, that it was not in her own home that the child was violated and raped? I suggest the Deputies reconsider.

This is designed to have a chilling effect on the child, in order that she is as confused as possible-----

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