Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Nobody should be harassed, insulted, intimidated or interfered with in any way when accessing healthcare services in our country or anywhere else. That applies absolutely to pregnant women who are accessing termination of pregnancy services. I welcome the publication of the Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021. I would like to begin by thanking the Senators involved for their work on it. Their commitment - and indeed the commitment in most parts of the House, based on tonight's debate - to highlighting this issue has been significant. It should be applauded and commended. I would like to thank and pay tribute to Together for Safety and the many voluntary groups around the country that are working and advocating on this issue. I would also like to restate my commitment to ensuring we provide safe access to termination of pregnancy services. I assure Senators and the House that the issue is a priority for me as Minister and for this Government.

It is important to recognise that the Senators supporting this Bill this evening and the Government are in the same place on this issue. This is a lawful service, which the majority of people in this country voted in 2018 to allow. Nothing should get in the way of that service being accessible. We all want to protect the people who need access to termination of pregnancy and our healthcare staff who work to provide these services. None of us wants to see these violent and intimidating protests outside our hospitals or our GP practices. None of us wants our service providers and our patients to be intimidated or to be fearful. I would like to take a moment to thank all of the practitioners who have worked through the pandemic to ensure these services continue to be provided without interruption.

I am fully supportive of the spirit and the intent of the Bill being debated this evening. I do not intend to oppose it. However, there are legal concerns about the provisions of the Bill, as currently drafted. I am advised that it could cause significant legal difficulties and may have unintended consequences for the operation of existing public order legislation. For the reasons I have covered, I will not be opposing this Bill. However, in order to ensure the quickest and most legally robust route to achieving our aims, I plan to have proposals for safe access on the legislative programme very soon - indeed, in the coming spring session. That would mean that the heads of the Bill would be produced. I will bring them to the Government. If I succeed in a Government decision, which I would hope to do because it is in the programme for Government, we will bring that to the committee for prelegislative scrutiny. Then all of us in the Oireachtas can work together to move the Bill through the legislative process and into law as quickly as possible. It was in September of this year that I listed this legislation for priority drafting by my Department. I hope we will have support for it. While the legislation we intend to bring forward in the spring will not have the support of everyone, I hope it will have the support of the Senators who are supporting this Bill this evening. Obviously, we should have a good and thorough debate and examination of that Bill when it is introduced.

As Senators will be aware, it was originally hoped to include provisions on safe access to services in the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. However, the Department advised at that time that some complex legal and policy issues had been identified which necessitated further consideration. Prime among these are the constitutional and human rights issues which could be infringed upon should peaceful protest be prohibited. Freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association, freedom of expression and freedom of thought, conscience and religion are fundamental rights in a democratic society. They are fundamental rights in our society. We have significant human rights commitments and obligations, both domestically in the Constitution and of course internationally. This means that there is a delicate balance to be struck in devising new legislative provisions to curtail rights in this area.

Given the delicate balance that needs to be struck, my officials are currently drafting legislative proposals and consulting other Government Departments and An Garda Síochána to find the best way to provide for safe access. I want this to be expedited and I have made this clear to my officials. I have also had discussions on the matter with the Attorney General. I want to assure the House again that it is my intention to introduce legislative measures as soon as possible. While I do not oppose the Bill before us, and indeed I support its spirit and intent, I have been advised of some concerns. I would like to cover them briefly now. They are being addressed through the drafting process in the Department.

First, the definition of “designated premises” set out in section 1 of the Bill suggests that 100 m safe access zones would apply to all premises that provide termination of pregnancy services, as well those providing or advising on contraception services.Within the 100 m zones no protest either for or against termination of pregnancy or, indeed, contraceptive services, would be permitted. It is a very broad definition. It would cover GPs, family planning clinics, primary healthcare centres and hospitals. It would also apply to pharmacies as they commonly dispense contraception and provide advice in regard to contraception. It might also extend to other premises which sell, supply or give advice about contraception, such as student unions, welfare offices and schools. It has even been suggested it would cover pubs which have condom vending machines in their toilets. Given the number of such premises in any given town or city, the application of a 100 m zone would have a serious impact on the ability of anyone to hold a protest for or against termination of pregnancy in any location without the risk of inadvertently committing an offence.

The establishment of 100 m safe access zones around all premises that provide termination of pregnancy and-or contraceptive services also presents a legal frailty in the Bill, as there is no public list of sites where these services are provided. This means that a person could argue that as the State has not confirmed which sites provide such services, that person cannot reasonably be on notice of how he, or she, may be breaching the law, which is a key requirement of criminal law. The HSE My Options programme holds a list of termination of pregnancy service providers who have agreed to share their details with patients seeking to access services. However, inclusion on the list is voluntary and many providers prefer not to be listed, and for some of the reasons we have heard debated this evening. The creation of a publicly available list is likely to deter some practitioners from providing services or cause other practitioners to withdraw the provision of services. It is essential that we develop a culture where termination of pregnancy services are accepted as part of standard healthcare provision so that that woman can access termination services across the community and hospital sectors.

There is concern that there are no enforcement powers included in the Bill. For example, it does not provide powers for An Garda Síochána to direct people to immediately leave the area or to arrest any person failing to comply with such a direction. This would have serious implications for the implementation and enforcement of the legislation by An Garda Síochána.

Since the commencement of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 in January 2019, termination of pregnancy services have become established and have become part of the Irish healthcare system in line with Government policy. However, we are all aware of reports of protests which have caused real distress to those accessing and providing services. We heard some very important and powerful testimony this evening from Senators with regard to women who have been affected in very serious ways in this regard. These are a cause of concern. They are completely unacceptable. Nobody should be blocked or denied safe access to lawfully provided services and no healthcare provider should have to deal with this intimidation.

I am committed to ensuring that anyone needing a termination of pregnancy can access services in safety. As I said, this is a priority for me and I intend to introduce the necessary legislation in the next Oireachtas spring session, that is, January to March 2022. It is important that such legislative provisions are implementable and enforceable, that they will stand up to any legal challenges that might be brought against them and that they do not cause any unintended consequences for existing public order laws.

I want to assure the House that my officials are currently working hard to find the best, most robust way to provide for safe access. My Department is also continuing to work with the HSE to ensure that all women in Ireland can access this service quickly and easily, without bias or judgment. We want to continue to provide a compassionate and dignified termination of pregnancy service. The most important thing is that women accessing this service can do so with certainty of the quality and safety of the care they will receive.

Our country has fallen far short of its obligations to women for a very long time. That applies in healthcare as much as in any other sector. As I have said previously, we do not need marginal improvement in women's healthcare, we do not need things to get a little better one year at a time, we need a revolution in women's healthcare. That means better services, more choice and more services. This applies in respect of maternity, gynaecology, fertility, menopause, contraception, mental health, endometriosis and much more. We will be launching a women's health action plan next year, which will cover these areas. We got off to a good start this year. We need to do more as quickly as we can. It also means safe access for women to these services. That is what this Bill is about. It is what this debate is about. It is a priority for so many people who have spoken tonight and for so many people who are watching this evening's proceedings. I want to assure Senators that we will be debating a Bill in the spring session, which, I hope, we can pass as quickly as possible through the full legislative process and provide the safety that is required.