Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister back to the House. I thank him for his remarkable contribution at the start of this debate. It really was a powerful statement from him and I know that, personally and politically, he has travelled his own journey in recent years to come to the conclusion he has arrived at in recent times. I want to thank him for that.

Of course, we all have a job over the next weeks to persuade people of the merits of the positions we taken personally and politically in this House. I formed the view a long time ago that the eighth amendment must be repealed. I took the view that it must be replaced with a regulated system underpinned by robust laws, framed in our national Parliament, in order to allow women to access the abortion health care interventions and continuum of care they require in their own country, close to their family and with the support and care of their family and friends, as well as their doctors. This is, in essence, the thrust of the report Senator Noone delivered in the context of her expert chairing of the committee.

I was seven years of age when the eighth amendment was made and Ireland and the world has changed considerably since then. Since 1983 this country has become much more equal and much more tolerant, yet our peculiar and very perverse constitutional position in regard to abortion calls such a claim into question. The Minister, or perhaps it was another colleague, referenced the contribution made by the then Attorney General, Peter Sutherland, in the context of the process back in 1982 and 1983. Speaking in opposition to the Bill 35 years ago, the then Labour Party leader, Dick Spring, said: "If this clause [the eighth amendment] is inserted in our Constitution, then that document will enshrine an attitude to women which verges on contempt." The experience of Irish women since 1983, when that amendment was made, has, unfortunately, proven that he was right.

The presence of the eighth amendment in Bunreacht na hÉireann is, frankly, cruel to women. If it is to remain, it will prove, as the Minister indicated earlier, absolutely impossible to provide the full range of humane health interventions that are required to protect the health and well-being of every woman in pregnancy in Ireland. In terms of our national constitutional position on access to abortion, this country has elevated hypocrisy, doublespeak and double standards to an art form, quite frankly. As Senator Alice-Mary Higgins said, the eighth amendment did not stop abortions for Irish women; it merely perpetuated and entrenched the practice where the care of Irish women who needed to access terminations was, in effect, subcontracted indefinitely to the UK and other jurisdictions.As a citizen of this Republic, a husband, a brother and an uncle, this does not sit well with me and this does not sit well with a majority of Members. In 1983, the people somehow convinced themselves that we could hermetically seal the country off against the everyday reality of abortion. We could not and we did not. Ask the almost 160,000 women who have had to access terminations since the 1980s. A compassionate society would agree that a woman who becomes pregnant as a result of rape should not be obligated, or forced, to give birth to the child of her rapist. A just country would understand why a teenage girl who is the victim of incest should have access to a termination in Ireland. Should the parents of a baby who will not survive outside of the womb be entitled to a level of compassion, support and care that is currently denied to them in this country? That should be the mark of a humane people and a humane society. Thousands of women order abortion pills online, and take them in an uncontrolled setting and in the absence of any medical support whatsoever. They should have access to safe abortion treatment under the care of their doctor within the 12 week limit, as provided for in the heads of the Bill that have been published by the Minister if the eighth amendment is repealed.

There is a responsibility on all of us to deal with the world as it is and not the world as it ought to be. Unless we remove the eighth amendment from our Constitution, the care and compassion that I would like to be given to my wife, sister, friends and all the women of Ireland if they become ill during a pregnancy will not be available to them in this State. This is a horrible vista that should fill all of us with fear and dread. This is a once in a generation opportunity, which needs to be grasped.

I support the Bill and look forward to campaigning actively for the change to be made. I was struck by Senator McDowell's comment earlier. By no means is repealing the eighth amendment a foregone conclusion. There is an obligation on all of us who believe that Article 40.3.3° is wrong and that it should never have been inserted in the Constitution in the first place to get out from behind our desks. If we truly believe that is the case, we should knock on every door in our constituencies and support those who are like minded to make sure justice is finally done and to make sure this dreadful provision inserted in the Constitution in 1983 is removed in the interests of women and their health. The referendum will not be secured on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I am struck by people who at all times draw analogies between the playbook that was introduced for the successful marriage equality referendum campaign and this campaign. There are no analogies. This is entirely different. We need to take that message seriously. I appeal to all those who say they support the repeal of the eighth amendment, including all public representatives who share my view, to get out from behind their desks and actively campaign because this is a once in a generation opportunity to right a dreadful wrong.