Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, who has been a long-time campaigner on this issue and done amazing work. I also welcome the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, who I believe will be back in the House presently.

I welcome this historic legislation and thank the Minister and his officials for the huge amount of work they have done in a relatively short period since the joint committee reported to the Oireachtas at the very end of December. Its recommendations have been well documented and discussed both here and elsewhere. I think I speak for the majority of the committee when I say we were very influenced by the fact that every year almost 3,500 Irish women travelled to clinics and hospitals outside the country to access abortion care and that abortion pills were freely available to women. Many have spoken about the use of abortion pills. The consideration of their use was instrumental in the committee's recommendations. The fact that it was impossible to legislate for cases of rape and incest was an influence. There was huge deliberation, but in a nutshell they were the main points that informed our recommendations. We recommended something that simply could not have been envisaged in 1983 when the eighth amendment was inserted into the Constitution - a scheme led by GPs, which would mean women having medical rather than surgical procedures. In many cases, under the current regime, Irish women access surgical abortions abroad in circumstances where they could easily have a medical abortion which would be much less harmful to them. They tend to have late term abortions simply because of the necessity to travel.

There will be a lot of misinformation in the campaign. It is important to say we categorically did not recommend abortion in the cases of disability. Earlier today somebody told me that they could not vote in favour because they had a sister with Down's syndrome. What we recommended was quite the opposite. That is just one of the many factually incorrect pieces of information that will be put out there in the coming weeks and months.

The eighth amendment has not saved lives, rather it has caused unspeakable suffering to women and loss of life. It should never have been inserted into the Constitution, as the majority of us here acknowledge. It has rightly been condemned in the European Court of Human Rights and by two United Nations' committees on human rights, in addition to the courts here, dating back to Mr. Justice Niall McCarthy in the Supreme Court in 1992. The theory that the death of Savita Halappanavar had nothing to do with the eighth amendment and was solely due to a lack of basic care is totally misleading and incorrect. The report on her death states its agreement that concerns about the law, regardless of whether they were clear, had impacted on the exercise of clinical professional judgment. Other Senators have spoken about this issue.

The concept that Ireland will have the most liberal abortion laws if the eighth amendment is repealed is also completely erroneous and typical of the type of misinformation that will have to be disputed during the campaign by those of us who will have the opportunity to try to inform the voting public on the issue. The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 did not, as other have said, by any means open the floodgates. In 2015 the number of abortions carried out under the provisions of the Act was 26. The number carried out because of a risk to life as a result of suicidal intent was three. In 2016 the total number was 25.

Others have mentioned Peter Sutherland's points which are completely valid. He knew what was being debated 35 years ago, what we all know now and what many knew and attested to at the time. In addition to the case of Savita Halappanavar and the X case, there was the 2014 case of the 26-year-old mother of two who became gravely ill while pregnant with her third child. Tragically she was diagnosed as being brain stem dead, but because she was pregnant, she was kept artificially alive. The father of the woman, in agreement with her partner, was forced to take a High Court action which finally led to a judgment on 26 December, St Stephen's Day, 2014. The court agreed that the woman should be allowed to die with a measure of dignity. The evidence in the case before the High Court was that the eighth amendment had led to the doctor not doing anything and the woman was kept alive. The limbs of the eighth amendment have extended into areas in ways which were never anticipated or which perhaps were anticipated by many such as keeping a dead woman alive in such circumstances.

I have heard about a number of distressing cases involving a fatal foetal abnormality. In one a woman was pregnant with twins, one of whom was dead, while the other had a fatal foetal abnormality and was going to die, yet she was forced to go the whole way to the European courts in a bid to be granted a termination. The case was followed by the Mellet and Whelan cases in 2016 and 2017, both of which involved a fatal foetal abnormality. How many more cases do we need to experience?

The Bill is long overdue - we will vote on it tonight, I hope in the affirmative - to allow the people to finally have their say on the issue. I am not somebody who has long campaigned on it, far from it. I could never have imagined that my life would be practically completely taken over by it for one year. Do not get me wrong - it has been an absolute privilege, but I come from a traditionally conservative viewpoint which many have shared, perhaps by osmosis, during the years. It felt like the right thing to do. Surely we are all pro-life.We are all pro-life but the polarisation of the debate and the use of the term "pro-life" causes a great deal of discomfort, especially for those of us who are pro-women and in favour of doing the right thing. The polarisation in the debate serves no one, least of all the women of Ireland. As Senator McDowell said, we need this to be a factual, considerate and respectful debate. We need to have the opportunity to explain the reality and the facts. The misinformation needs to be stamped out because it simply has no place in the debate.

I am proud of the work every committee member did in producing a thoroughly thought through, evidence-based report. I sincerely hope that the rationale and our recommendations will be sufficiently explained to the people. The hypocrisy at the heart of the country needs to be faced up to once and for all. Irish people are fundamentally compassionate and informed and I truly believe that Irish women and young people, and the men who understand and love Irish women, will vote "Yes" to remove the shackles of the eighth amendment. There is a huge duty on those of us who have an understanding of this issue to explain it and to do with away with the misinformation. By all means, concerns need to be heard and addressed, which is to be anticipated and expected. I look forward to casting my vote in favour of repeal of the eighth amendment and I commend the Bill to the House to finally give the people their say on this issue.