Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I commend Senator Bacik and the Labour Party on introducing this legislation. I am sure everybody in the House is tired of hearing me talk about the importance of the Irish Women Workers' Union winning the two weeks' holiday for everybody. The Irish Women Workers' Union was founded by many of the women who came out of that revolutionary early part of the State, the founding of the State. Margaret Skinnider, who came out of that same movement, played a key role in the establishment of the INTO. I want to acknowledge that organisation's role in pressing forward and putting these issues on the agenda.

Senator Bacik has followed in that same tradition of bringing together gender equality issues and worker equality issues. In the previous Oireachtas as well as in this one she has introduced important legislation relating to platform workers, collective bargaining - we still need a right to collective bargaining in this country - and joint labour committees, recognising particularly sectors where women are often working which needed collective bargaining rights. Of course, she has led much of the work on the gender pay gap which, I am glad to see, is now being taken on more widely.

Those are all pieces that fit together, recognising that workers are also people who have lives, who have bodies and who have needs. That message came strongly from the Citizens' Assembly when it recommended reconfiguring the Constitution so that it recognised the private and family lives of all families - not just married families, but also women who are parenting alone and every kind of family that might be constructed in Ireland. The Citizens' Assembly also recognised that people may be working and caring, and the need to balance those concerns. That shows a vision of an integrated honest discussion that we need to have about life.

I agree that there has been a culture of silence, secrecy, stigma and shame on the issue. That has not happened without reason. We must be clear that the eighth amendment to the Constitution played a key role in that. In countries such as El Salvador and in certain states of the United States a woman can go to prison for having a miscarriage. That continues to be the reality. It was a concern when people were afraid to talk about these issues. I was really struck by Senator Pauline O'Reilly saying that many people will not speak to their doctor. For a long time, people were afraid to talk about these issues to their doctor, which has major consequences for miscarriage.

For example, for women who are rhesus negative and have an early miscarriage, the fact of having been pregnant for however brief period can have a major impact on the viability of their next pregnancy unless they are able to discuss it and learn about getting the treatment or additional care they might need. That is why these issues are so important. The Bill helps not only the individuals who are affected but also shifts the culture in society so that we recognise miscarriage as a very real and very hard thing.

Regarding the question of natural miscarriage versus induced miscarriage, let us be clear there are many kinds of miscarriages. Miscarriages can be both natural and then induced. Miscarriage is not always a moment. I know it generally is in movies, which is the only place we tend to see it. It is a terrible and awful moment, but many people discover that they have already miscarried when they go in for the nine-week or 12-week scan. They are probably excited and, unfortunately, they are probably alone because of the rules we have about accessing maternity hospitals at the moment. They discover that their pregnancy has ended but that their body has not realised it yet. That may last for a week. A woman may walk around for a week or ten days looking pregnant but not being pregnant. That is sometimes how long a miscarriage will take. That may require medical inducement and surgical intervention. That is all part of some people's miscarriage journey. That gives us a sense of why we are not just talking about time to grieve. Sometimes those 20 days will be needed for the process itself.

This Bill is important in moving things forward. Other Senators have mentioned IVF. The assisted human reproduction legislation must be introduced. The Minister of State will have heard the demand to have equity at the heart of that legislation. We should not just deal with the technical and moral issues of assisted human reproduction, but with those issues of equality of access. Again, this is an important piece that recognises that the times and dates are non-negotiable. These are very specific days that people have.

I commend a very important part of the Bill, the protection of employment rights. It is vital that people who are pregnant, who have a miscarriage or who need to attend IVF appointments do not feel they will be jeopardised, sidelined, mistreated, overlooked for promotion or placed into other roles. We should not have a culture where people are afraid to speak in their workplace about wanting to have a child. There is a reason for having protections relating to pregnancy. Similarly, we should have protections relating to employers not disadvantaging people. That is why this is not just health legislation; it is workers' rights legislation. I strongly commend it to the House.