Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend Senators Clonan and McGreehan for sharing their personal stories this afternoon. I also want to share mine because I have lost two children through miscarriage. I have two but I also lost two. It is difficult. I recognise that, but people are calling the people who stand outside centres and hospitals protestors. I would not call them that. To me, they are not protestors. They are engaged in quiet prayer for the unborn and for the mother. Not that I witnessed these outside the places I had my children in the UK, but I would have felt comfort knowing there was somebody outside that door praying for me and for what I was going through in those times of loss, or even praying that the births of my children would go well. One went well and one did not go so well.They do not intimidate me in any way, and I am sure they do not intimidate many mothers in this country, because they are engaged in quiet prayer - praying for the unborn, praying for the mothers and praying for the mothers who are about to give birth. Prayer has many forms.

Our amendments would ensure that legitimate protests or pro-life activities, which unwittingly pass by a designated premises, would not be criminalised. Each year there is a march for life in Dublin, which attracts approximately 1,000 participants, who pass peacefully through the city centre. If this Bill were enacted as is, there is a concern that events like march for life would be proscribed on a purely ideological basis. The area around St. Stephen's Green for example has several GPs in buildings that would be regarded as designated premises and thereby have 100 m zones around them in which any activity likely to influence someone's decision to have an abortion would be impacted. This would inevitably pose difficulties to the organisers of perfectly legitimate public events. The right of citizens to freely organise legitimate protests, gatherings and rallies that stand for the pro-life message must be protected. No evidence has been produced by the Minister that any public order offences were ever recorded - not one piece of evidence. I am shocked that a Government is so afraid of the people of faith of this country who gather quietly outside the hospitals and centres. To bring this draconian legislation in is a sad day for free speech in this country, and a sad day for the unborn.

People say to come to the Dáil and come to Leinster House to protest peacefully here. You cannot even do that anymore. There are barricades 100 m around it. We are isolated from what people on the ground are thinking and feeling. Tomorrow will be International Women's Day. I have no doubt the women of Ireland will stand up to say, "No, No", to this Government. They will not want to have their words, "woman" and "mothers", taken out of the Constitution. They will not want that done by this Government. I have a feeling that this country and this Government will wake up on Saturday morning to a resounding "No, No" vote. That might wake the Government parties up to listen to what is happening on the ground. With these 100 m zones, and these barricades around this ivory tower they all live in, they might get a real feel about what the public is thinking out there, not just on this issue but on all the issues like the housing crisis, or the health crisis the Minister is in charge of. Tomorrow will be a day of reckoning for this Government, and I hope the people of Ireland speak up.