Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to echo the words of Senator Buttimer and my colleagues in Sinn Féin who were positive about the Constitutional Convention. As someone who not only participated in it, but led the Labour delegation, I viewed it as a positive process. Its recommendation on marriage equality paved the way for the holding of the relevant referendum in 2015, among other changes. The model proposal in this motion differs in three significant ways from the Constitutional Convention, however, and that is why we are opposing it. I have with me the motion on the convention that we passed in 2012.

First, much tighter timeframes were provided for in the convention model. In particular, the convention had to report to the Oireachtas within two months on the first matters for deliberation.

Second and significantly, the convention included 66 citizens and 33 politicians chosen from north and south of the Border. Therefore, its recommendations did not need to be taken back to Oireachtas committees for deliberation before being acted upon. I have expressed concern about the anti-politician tenor of the proposed assembly. The Constitutional Convention was a different creature.

Third, the first issue proposed for this assembly is different. The eighth amendment has been in place since 1983 and we have been dealing with its implications ever since. We have held four further referendums on the issue along with a flurry of constitutional cases, a series of tragic cases and the recent passage of protection of life during pregnancy legislation. I was one of a number of Trinity and other students union leaders threatened with jail and bankruptcy in a 1989 case taken under the referendum seeking to restrain the provision of information by us to women in crisis pregnancies. Although I have been personally affected, I was too young to have voted in 1983. The eighth amendment has cast a blight on my generation. Many of us have daughters of our own, as I do, and we are anxious to ensure that the eighth amendment will not blight their lives as it has those of so many women down the years.

Let us be clear, in that the effect of the eighth amendment has been negative and, in some cases, devastating. It has not prevented one crisis pregnancy, as we know that more than 160,000 women have travelled from Ireland to England to terminate pregnancies since the amendment was passed. It has compounded the crisis of pregnancy, particularly for those women for whom the journey to seek abortion abroad is particularly difficult - young women, women in poverty and asylum seekers. It symbolically portrays women as vessels, equating our lives to those of the "unborn". Above all, it has endangered women's lives by having a "chilling effect" on the practice of obstetrics in Ireland. We heard compelling testimony from doctors to that effect during the excellent debates in this Chamber that were held by the health committee and chaired by Senator Buttimer on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, which is another indication that we as legislators should be able to deal with this issue without the need for further assembly or delay mechanisms.

Calls for repeal have grown strong in recent years, in particular since the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar in 2012, the prolonging of life support for a pregnant young woman against her family's wishes in a midlands hospital in December 2014 and the recent case of Ms Amanda Mellet before the UN Human Rights Committee. We have heard tragic testimony from couples and individuals in the Terminations for Medical Reasons group, TFMR, more and more groups have joined the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment and we have heard powerful testimony, like that made for Amnesty International by Graham and Helen Linehan last year based on their own experience of fatal foetal abnormality. We know by now that there is a need to repeal the eighth amendment. This is accepted by most right-thinking people. For this reason, we as legislators must take on our responsibility to debate and pass a Bill to hold a referendum on the eighth amendment. We should put that referendum to the people without further delay. We must take the initiative.

Labour Women has published framework legislation that we believe should replace any constitutional text. It would allow abortion on four medically certified grounds: risk to life; risk to health; rape; and fatal foetal abnormality. Our sensible legislation is the sort of legislative framework that we in these Houses are best placed to debate. We need to put the referendum on repealing the eighth amendment to the people without further delay. There is a groundswell of public support for this. Let us achieve repeal and end the chill for our daughters and future generations.