Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I am speaking to bring a socialist feminist analysis to this debate. Socialist feminism opposes cynical attempts to commercialise and make private profit out of the heartbreaking fertility issues prospective parents face. It opposes all attempts to profit from the systemic sexist and homophobic inequality rife in capitalist society. This includes recognising that infertility is a common and significant health concern that should be addressed via the public health service. Socialist feminism means standing for a totally secular state-of-the-art comprehensive public health service, free at the point of delivery, that actively seeks to eliminate the well documented, systemic medical misogyny.

Socialist feminism rejects patriarchal and backward views of the family that propagate rigid gender roles. It recognises that all sorts of diverse carers can make excellent parents, including same-sex couples, those who play a parent role who do not have a genetic connection to the child, single parents and gender non-conforming parents and actively seeks to bring men into caring roles equally. Socialist feminism seeks to make care something that is central to society, not something that is denigrated, undervalued, underpaid and also commercialised, as it is in capitalist society.

On the question of IVF, the current situation is a disaster for the vast majority of prospective parents who have to individually navigate an unregulated private system often with prohibitive costs involved. People get plunged into significant debt. Despite promises in 2019, there is still no access to IVF through the HSE. Meanwhile, successive Governments have essentially facilitated profiteers at the top of private industries. A number of companies that own private fertility clinics in Ireland reported profits in the millions, according to thejournal.iein December. Access to IVF and other treatments as part of the national health service is the norm across Europe. In Scotland, for example, in the national health service, patients are offered up to three free cycles of IVF. This should be immediately brought in here without any further delay.

We must go further than just regulation of private operators. We must have access to free-at-the-point-of-use treatments for infertility. The funding for treatment that the Government has long promised and long delayed cannot just be a funnelling of funds into the private industry. There needs to be training up of staff and massive investment in the public health system so that these essential services can be delivered there. The public health system is already under-resourced. There are currently more than 30,000 adults waiting to see a gynaecologist, 6,000 of them are waiting for more than a year. Ireland is way behind most countries. It is a laggard in these respects. The legacy of the Catholic church and its continued influence in the healthcare system is a key factor. There needs to be cast-iron guarantees that access to IVF and other treatments that are not approved by the Catholic church will be available in all hospitals. This means the removal of any vestige of church influence on hospital boards and a rethink of the Government's decisions and current approach to the new national maternity hospital, which incredibly threatens to put reproductive healthcare back into the orbit of a religious order.

Given the sorry history of the State on matters of child welfare and women's health, I will be tabling amendments for democratic oversight of the assisted human reproduction regulatory authority. At a minimum, there will have to be representation on this board from children's rights advocates, workers in healthcare, human rights advocates and those with a record in campaigning for the rights of women.

I welcome the opposition to commercial surrogacy in the Bill. It is a global industry rife with ruthless profiteering and the exploitation of poverty and desperation in underdeveloped parts of the world. There are many cases of women caught in poverty who sign up to be surrogates often in order to have enough money to feed their children. Meagre pay, withholding of pay if the pregnancy ends tragically early, examples of companies that do not allow the surrogate mother even to touch the baby after it is born, which is incredibly cruel to the baby and surrogate mother, are all widely reported. Callously linking that to people who often have heart-breaking health complications and desperately want to love and care for a child, in order to turn a profit, truly makes this a grotesque industry that profits from and perpetuates gender inequality. In 2020, this global industry was worth more than $4 billion.

I support those aspects of the Bill that will give rights to children born through surrogacy. They should have the right to access information and to have contact with their surrogate mothers. The Bill seeks to protect surrogate mothers and allows some important rights for them that I support. It is important, however, to recognise that even with altruistic surrogacy undue pressure can sometimes be exerted on someone to agree to undertake it. Even if that person enters into it freely, the reality that every single pregnancy is a risk to health and, potentially, a risk to life can have major consequences. For example, the risk of preeclampsia, which is potentially life-threatening for the pregnant person and the baby, is greater for surrogates. The assisted human reproduction Act will be important and any new regime must be regularly and democratically reviewed and checked.

In a capitalist society, pregnancy not only risks a person's health but impacts on his or her income, pension entitlements, job progression and so on. We need to have a new society that protects pregnant people and ensures that the structural injustices built into the system are challenged. Across the board, there must be access to public childcare, full maternity benefits, full pension rights, two years parental leave, a shorter working week - with no loss of pay - to facilitate care and free healthcare. These types of changes are needed for everyone. Furthermore, any altruistic surrogates should not have to depend on expenses being paid by the intending parents. No person having a child should have to be out of pocket in the short term or in the long run.

Capitalism's booming surrogacy industry and the exploitation rife within it is emblematic of how the profit system turns even brilliant medical advancements into an opportunity for private profit, in this instance, in a way that is inextricable from capitalism's systemic gender inequality. A struggle for a socialist society is a struggle to put care at the centre of society and not relegate it to the bottom rung as the for-profit motive consistently does.

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