Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to speak on behalf of the Labour Party on this important Bill and to express our warm welcome for it. I thank the Minister for introducing it in the House. As he said, it is in keeping with a long-standing commitment. It is long-awaited and long overdue. We have just marked the fifth anniversary of the repeal vote. The need for safe access zones and the introduction of such legislation was widely spoken about at the time. It was included in successive legislative programmes in 2019 and in the programme for Government in 2020. We are now in July 2023. It is unfortunate it has taken this long, particularly when a cross-party Private Members' Bill was introduced in the Seanad by Senator Gavan. The Labour Party was proud to co-sponsor that Bill with Senator Gavan and his colleagues because it was drafted by the fantastic activist organisation, Together for Safety, working with Senators. It received strong support. If we had been able to use that Bill, it would have been a swifter way to move to a space where we would have safe access zones in law.

I am conscious that members of the Together for Safety campaign in Limerick have joined us in the Gallery this afternoon, including Karen, Evie and their colleagues. I welcome them and pay tribute to their valiant campaigning and focus on this important issue. I will mention the work of Labour Party activists who have consistently supported Together for Yes in Limerick, including our former Deputy, Jan O'Sullivan, and our councillor, Conor Sheehan. They have been to the fore in calling for the swift introduction of this legislation.

We are all in agreement that the Bill is vitally important to those women seeking access to termination of pregnancy services. It is also very important for all healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, who are seeking to provide such services. It is also important to our democracy in that it is a way in which we can see the will of the people being carried out. In 2018, five years ago, people voted by an overwhelming majority, more than two thirds, for women to have access to abortion services here. Where we see protests obstructing such access, that is really seeking to impede the carrying out of a service that has such an overwhelming democratic mandate.

There are other obstacles to accessing such services, and the Minister has alluded to them. I am very glad, as I think all of us will be, to hear the Minister’s remarks about the work that is being undertaken to improve access because we are all conscious of the geographic inconsistency in access to services. According to the recent review, there are currently 13 counties in which fewer than ten GPs are providing access to early abortion services and not yet all maternity hospitals are doing so. I very much welcome the Minister’s commitment today that we are on track to see 17 out of 19 hospitals providing such services by the end of 2023. The rest will do so next year. It is still the case, however, that we have seen a long delay in the roll-out of consistent services nationally. That is a real concern and it is a difficult and distressing experience for many women and girls who are seeking to access services in counties where they are not available.

I was glad to have been invited to give the opening address to a recent conference of abortion providers in Ireland - GPs, hospital doctors and others who are actively engaged in providing abortion services. They spoke with me about their anxiety to see more colleagues join them, particularly GPs. The more GPs who provide the service, the easier it will become and the fewer obstructions there will be for women who are accessing such services. Also, there will be a critical mass to stand up against the intimidation that some GPs are continuing to experience where they are providing services. If they feel isolated within their own local area in providing such services, clearly that is a difficulty. It does not help when we are seeking to ensure that more GPs provide such services.

The delay has not helped. This time last year, the Minister promised that this legislation would be in place before last Christmas. I acknowledge the huge progress in debating Second Stage today. I also acknowledge the complexity of drafting, and I will come to that in a minute. We need an assurance that the legislation will be passed without any further delays. We are conscious that this is the second last week of this Dáil term. Perhaps the Minister will indicate when he envisages the legislation will pass both Houses and be brought into effect. That is also a critical timeline for us.

As I said, five years ago people voted by an overwhelming majority. I commend all those involved in campaigning. It was a hugely important and compelling campaign run by organisations such as Together for Yes and groups such as Women’s Health Ireland. I was glad to play a part in those and the Minister was also part of the campaign. Our Labour Party slogan during the 2018 referendum campaign was “For Compassion in a Crisis”. That was the overwhelming feeling and emotion that arose in the referendum vote. People were voting for compassion and empathy. There was an understanding and appreciation of the huge difficulty and distress that so many women in crisis pregnancies were in because their crisis was being compounded by having to travel abroad for necessary healthcare.

The national conversation which took place in the run-up to the vote on 25 May 2018 and which was, as the Minister said, conducted in a respectful and dignified manner, for the most part, provided the space for those who were undecided in advance of the referendum to make a journey towards a position where they could vote "Yes". It was founded on empathy and compassion and it put an end to the chill that the eighth amendment had cast over my generation and so many women for so long.

In 2018, this country said we had enough of a lack of compassion and decades of secrecy, shame, exile and isolation for women in crisis pregnancy. It is remarkable, looking back on it, to think that almost 1.5 million people voted for the constitutional change. Therefore, it is incumbent on us all as legislators to ensure that where a woman seeks to access abortion care in line with that overwhelming vote, she may do so free of intimidation and harassment. That is why we have always pushed for the introduction of safe access zone laws. As the Minister has said and as we all know, these laws are in place across other jurisdictions. They are vital for the provision of accessible, safe abortion services in Ireland.

The Bill before us provides for the designation of such zones, within 100 m of healthcare premises, where conduct aimed at impeding or obstructing access or influencing decisions in relation to the termination of a pregnancy will be prohibited. We are very glad to support that provision. We do so noting that the intimidating protests that are regularly taking place outside hospitals and GPs serve as a barrier to accessing vital medical care. They also, as I have said, create a chilling effect on the provision of abortion services, particularly in areas where coverage is already low and GPs may already feel they are easily identifiable and therefore isolated.

We have heard from Marie O’Shea’s review and Catherine Conlon’s work about the huge distress that women remain in, despite the change in the law because they are forced to travel for care. They must make the journey twice due to the mandatory three-day waiting period requirement. That crisis is compounded further when women are faced with intimidation and protests on arriving at a clinic or hospital.

GPs from rural areas in particular have reported to my office that they, their front-line staff, often administrators and receptionists, and patients may be the subject of abuse and intimidation. Most of us have seen some of the posters, heard some of the chants and observed some of the behaviour of those who organise these so-called protests. Some of them gather very near here, outside the National Maternity Hospital, in my own constituency of Dublin Bay South. Of course, individuals are entitled to have different views and, under our Constitution, they are entitled to freedom of assembly and association, but they are not entitled to harass patients who are accessing healthcare or to harass medics and healthcare workers who are doing their jobs.

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