Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for bringing this Bill to the House.

I very much welcome the opportunity to speak on this referendum Bill. The people of Ireland own Bunreacht na hÉireann and the voice of several generations now need to be heard on the issue of the eighth amendment and its suitability, or not, for our Constitution.

Article 40.3.3° has terrorised women since its insertion into the Constitution. It has led to the death and serious injury of women. It has caused untold suffering and pain for women and their families. The black and white eighth amendment has led to the Government of Ireland being supremely criticised by the Supreme Court in the X case in 1992, by the European Court of Human Rights and by two UN committees on human rights. There is no room for compassion or support of women within the eighth amendment.

In 1992, the X case involved a 14 year old child who had been repeatedly sexually abused and raped, which led to a pregnancy. Twenty-six years later we are tentatively stepping closer to a referendum on this issue. There has been 26 years of hardship and suffering and death for Irish women, which is poignant because it was made abundantly clear during the X case that the amendment had no place in the Constitution and would lead to further harm.

We have had the cases of the brave Amanda Mellett and Siobhán Whelan, the case of Ms A, Ms B and Ms C, and the death of Savita Halappanavar. Before someone here repeats the myth that her death had nothing to do with the eighth amendment, it is clear from the report into her death the failure to offer all management options to a patient experiencing an inevitable miscarriage and concerns about the law impacting on clinical management led to her death.

We have also had the deeply upsetting case of a 26 year old mother of two children who suffered brain stem death in December 2016 during her pregnancy. She was kept alive against her family's wishes as her doctors' hands were tied due to the eighth amendment. The doctors were simply afraid to act. The High Court eventually ruled that she could die with her remaining dignity intact and thereby not compound the grief felt by her family who were, inevitably, grief-stricken by the turn of events. It was a horrific and grotesque reminder of the disastrous impact of the eighth amendment.

We have been told that the proposed legislative scheme is liberal. In fact, it is one of the most conservative legislative schemes in Europe. We have also been told that the floodgates will open, and that Irish women will lose the run of themselves and start using abortion as a method of contraception. Again, this is not true and the evidence does not stack up. However, evidence shows that the rate of termination drops when safe and legal termination is introduced in tandem with health education and contraception, which is what the Minister has proposed to introduce. It is also one of the main recommendations made by the committee.

We heard that floodgates would open during the Oireachtas debates on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act. No such floodgates have opened. I wish to put on record the number of pregnancies that were terminated following the enactment of the legislation in 2013. The facts are: 26 in 2014; 26 in 2015; and 25 in 2016. Such numbers do not represent the opening of floodgates by any manner of means. During all of that time there has been a consistent flow of women from Ireland going abroad to obtain a termination and thousands more women have ordered abortion pills online and taken them without medical supervision which, potentially, has fatal consequences.

Travelling after medical procedures and unsupervised terminations mean that Irish women are put at risk on a daily basis. I cannot stand by and let thousands more lives and health be put at risk like this.These are the women of my generation. They are valued, loved and cherished by their families, friends and communities. The law needs to protect them from harm, not criminalise them. We cannot brush unpalatable truths under the carpet any longer. We cannot turn our backs on our friends, neighbours, sisters, daughters and cousins. We need to support women when making decisions during pregnancy. We need to have a referendum and let the people of Ireland have their say.

I will support the referendum Bill and vote to repeal the eighth amendment. I take this opportunity to appeal to colleagues in this House and beyond who talk about the importance of the unborn child to campaign with the same vigour for additional public health nurses to support women and their babies post birth, additional lactation consultants, additional perinatal psychologists and additional funding for child care.