Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit for her presence here. I remember feeling real sorrow when the eighth amendment was repealed and deleted from our Constitution. I thought that something really good, which recognised the dignity of everybody in our society, had been lost. I felt sorrow when the quite wide-ranging legislation for abortion passed subsequently. At the time I said, and I will say again today, that there is a generation of people of all ages coming forward who see clearly that the dignity of the human person is a fundamental value for a civilised society, and that once we start excluding categories of people from the protection of society and the protection of the law, that we have gone down a bad road. Those people are to be commended for the work they continue to do. It is not primarily outside facilities where abortions are taking place that one sees their good work. We see their good work in the many exchanges with friends, colleagues and family members in colleges and so on, where they seek to advance a vision of authentic human rights that leaves nobody behind. That, essentially, is what the pro-life position is about. It is caring for mothers and caring for babies.

What we see here today is the negative outworking of the repeal, or some aspect of the negative outworking of the repeal of the eighth amendment, and the subsequent abortion legislation. At the time I wondered, and I continue to wonder and many of us continue to wonder, how far are those who want to secure abortion rights willing to go? The demand is for ever more restrictions on dissent. That is a very sad thing for our democracy. I do not believe that we are going to become a dictatorship overnight, but I use the words "flirting with fascism", which I used very carefully, because there are overtones of fascism around any attempt to curtail the respectful free expression of ideas. It does not happen in any other area. There is a particular worrying intolerance in those quarters that had the majority on their sides and which got the legislation that they wanted, but we have politicians here today pandering to what is actually now a very intolerant element in our society.

The people whose freedom to express a different idea, which is an authentic vision of human rights that includes everybody, does include some of the grannies of Ireland and the mothers. I was very sorry to hear them spoken of so disrespectfully today. It was from my mother, not from any bishop or religious leader, that I gained the pro-life sensibility that I believe is essential for a civilised society. She is a nurse. Another relative of mine was a nurse in Scotland and she told me of her experience of seeing abortions happening over there. I will never forget the moment when she described it as the tick, tick, tick of the little unborn child, in a late term pregnancy situation, expiring after an abortion. These things happen in our world and nobody wants to talk about them.

We have this lopsided debate where people rightly concern themselves with the vulnerability of those in crisis pregnancy, and we should all concern ourselves to address and assist in that area. I have spent a lot of my political career stressing that point. However, there is a complete absence and invisibility and the refusal to consider the humanity of the unborn, which sticks out remarkably and is a real indictment of our society. Nobody ever talks about the unborn child, who he or she is, what potential he or she has to make a fantastic contribution to the world, and what is lost when an abortion takes place. It is not to judge any other person to talk about the tragedy of that. It is to seek to find better ways for the future.