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TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said that the government intends to hold a referendum on repealing the Eighth Amendment before the end of May.
The referendum will be subject to the approval of the Dáil with Varadkar saying the Cabinet agreed on the preferred timeline this evening.
While the exact wording of the referendum question that will be put to voters has not yet been decided, Varadkar said it will include a Constitutional provision enabling the Oireachtas to legislate for the issue.
The Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment had recommended a straight repeal referendum.
The committee also recommended that terminations be available without restriction up to 12 weeks of pregnancy and Cabinet has now backed this proposal.
Details of the government’s plans were announced in a press conference this evening held by Varadkar as well as Minister for Health Simon Harris and Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone.
The press conference came following a Cabinet meeting that lasted about four hours.
The government’s approach was approved by Cabinet but it is understood that Tánaiste Simon Coveney told his Cabinet colleagues he could not support the 12-week provision.
Speaking at Government Buildings this evening about his own views on the referendum, Varadkar said that he would be campaigning to repeal the Eighth Amendment.
“We know that thousands of Irish women, women from every single county in Ireland, travel abroad for abortions every year. We know that women obtain abortion pills through the post to end their pregnancies without any medical support or counselling or supervision. So we already have abortion in Ireland, but it’s unsafe, unregulated and unlawful. In my opinion we cannot continue to export our problems and import our solutions,” Varadkar said.
An Taoiseach said that his own personal view on the issue had “evolved over time”.
However difficult, I believe the time has come for the people to make this decision. The question has to be a yes or no one. Do we reform our abortion laws or leave them as they are? For my part I will advocate a yes vote, my own views have evolved over time. Life experience does that.
Varadkar said that it was during his time as Health Minister that he “became convinced” Ireland’s abortion laws had to change and he referenced the Miss Y and Miss P cases.
“These cases should have been cases for the women themselves, their next of kin and their doctors, but both were decided in the courts due to the Eighth Amendment,” Vadakar said.
Doctors deciding what to do in difficult circumstances should look to clinical guidelines, not Bunreacht na hÉireann. That’s why I called for a change in the Dail in December 2014.
On the 12 weeks provision, Varadkar said that he will support legislation which paves the way for the recommendation.
“People will have to make up their own minds, based on the evidence and their own conscience. In making my decision to support it, should legislation ever come before the Dáil, I listened to the views of others, medical experts, the public, my own party, ministers and friends. And above all I’ve listened to women,” he said.
The Taoiseach also noted that the Oireachtas committee’s report outlined that, in cases of rape, forcing women to prove they were raped to secure a termination would “make them victims for a second time”.
Beyond the 12 week provision, Varadkar said abortion would only be available in “exceptional circumstances”, such as in cases of fatal foetal abnormality or a serious risk to the life of the woman.
In these such cases decisions would be based on the best medical evidence, Varadkar said.
Ultimately it will be a decision based on the wishes of the woman concerned and the best available medical evidence. Safe, legal and rare, no longer an article in our constitution but rather a personal and private matter for women and their doctors. No more X cases, no more C cases. No more Miss Ys, Miss As, Miss Bs or Miss Cs.
If we do not approve this amendment to the Constitution, there will be no change. We can’t introduce abortion in any circumstances without a Yes vote, we can’t do it in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, we can’t do it in cases of rape or incest, we can’t do it in the case of a child who becomes pregnant and doesn’t want to become a mother.
“So what we’re asking people to do is allow us to change the Constitution and the Oireachtas is enabled to make new laws. That we can’t tie the hands of a future Oireachtas. So essentially that is the difference. ”
Timeline
The May referendum date has come following pressure from students groups which had urged the government to consider the circumstances of third-level students.
“Millions of our young people have not had the opportunity to vote on this issue, and arguably it affects our future generations more than any other,” Michael Kerrigan of the Union of Students of Ireland said today.
Minister for Health Simon Harris has said that both he and the Taoiseach wanted the referendum date to avoid clashing with both college exams and the Leaving Certificate exams.
Speaking at this evening’s press conference, Harris said that “the Constitution is not the place to address this aspect of women’s healthcare”.
“Change cannot happen as long as the Eighth Amendment remains in the constitution,” he said, adding that “it’s time for the people to have their say”.
Minister Zappone said that “as an independent woman” she was “full of emotion” following the government’s decision.
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Sounds more like censorship & who would decide what’s ” Fake news” . I haven’t heard many people complaining about the way we vote so maybe just leave things the way they are!
@Colette Kearns: Sometimes we have short memories in Ireland.
There have been ongoing issues with the manual electoral process we have for years – one major contentious point is the payment of those in counting centres which seems to go to the same people in every election and the process of how people are selected is always controversial, not to mention how slow some counting centres are.
In 2002 we tried to bring in electronic voting for the Nice treaty, trialed in Dublin, was an expensive disaster and was never rolled out out, we still have a load of the machines in warehouses in Dublin.
Ireland has needed to modernise the electoral process for years, e-voting, at minimum needs to be effectively brought in so a commission to plan it should be welcomed
@Colette Kearns:
Yeah because who’s to say if Kevin Sorbo’s claims that the Trump rioters were all Antifa insider’s is really true… Some things are plainly untrue and fake news. Reports based entirely on conjecture and speculation, or claims which are demonstrably untrue, are not news.
Convincing people that the line between real and fake news is somehow unclear, or that legitimate political expression is somehow endangered by attempts to control it, is one of Trump’s biggest accomplishments, and likely to be his most enduring “legacy”.
@Gerard: Can you prove that there were absolutely no Antifa members at the Capitol Hill riots? It works both ways, I’m sure when he made that claim about Antifa members you asked if he had proof, well what about you. Can you prove your theory?
I’m not saying I agree or disagree, just playing devils advocate, we should apply standards equally, not on a sliding scale based on how well they for in to someone’s view and provide confirmation bias for a certain opinion
@Gerard: It’s not just about whether information is true or false. For me, it’s also about what is not reported. This is a big issue in Ireland, RTE and Irish MSM are notorious for not reporting issues or resorting to a particular narratives.
Those of us who grew up with the Troubles as the background score to our lives are now finding out what really went on in NI. It’s what was omitted that’s the real issue.
Don’t start me on the Catholic Church and state institutions and the abuse of women and children, all of which went unreported for decades. As did the unreported crimes of cronyism, corruption and lack of accountability of our state institutions, judiciary and politicians.
If Michael Martin thinks the public would support MSM by a tax, he’s mistaken because many of us see MSM as the problem
Allegations of fake news is just a cop out as we have been living with fake news/official narratives for decades and anything put forward to challenge this will be even more destructive.
@Simon Carroll: the default case is that something is untrue and must be proven to be true. Which a couple of blurry photos of tattoos of one do not do.
The fact that there were Trump supporters there is undeniable and there is ample evidence of it. Trump even accepts this as fact in his praise of the rioters. Anything else is conjecture and wishful thinking.
It actually doesn’t work both ways. The presumption is false until proven true.
I recommend watching John Oliver’s segment about voting machines in America (from his ‘Last Week Tonight’ HBO show): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svEuG_ekNT0
As for Fianna Fail’s voting machines, while I cannot prove anything and I do not actually know for a fact, I cannot shake the suspicion that this was another of FF’s attempts to manipulate elections, after their attempts to redraw constituencies (TWICE) to ensure they would always gain the majority of elected TD’s were roundly rejected.
@David A. Murray: Yet when American Republicans put forward such points about e-voting they are deemed crackpots?
@David A. Murray: so you’ve no evidence of anything.
@Cosmos20202020: That was what I said. I suspect based on previous attempts by FF. I said I have no evidence. I’ll go further. I have never heard of anyone who claimed to have evidence. It was my opinion.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: You might want to check up (even a little) on which states have bad records for voter suppression and flawed use of voting methods. The cross-reference with the periods of time and which party the Governor and Election Officials were in office. Not always, but usually (over the last 40 years) it’s been Republican more than Democrat. Also, Republican Election Officials have been targeted and fired for not towing Trump and his cohorts propaganda in 2020 about a ‘stolen election’.
@David A. Murray:
You’re talking absolute nonsense. After every census constituencies are redrawn to reflect changed population densities. You have no idea what you’re talking about and your conspiracy talk is laughable. Think you should move to the US you might find more of your bedfellows over there.
Quantum computing when developed a bit further will blow blockchain encryption apart. I don’t know what will happen then but I wouldn’t want out voting system to be in the middle of it. Paper voting works. We have no fraud. Waiting for the count is not a big deal.
And if you’d don’t t have a smart phone?
Good article Senator. The government’s proposed draft legislation for an electoral commission is already outdated because it is focused solely on reform of the electoral register. It is completely silent on issues like social media regulation, the use of online crowd funding to finance campaigns and even revised rules on postal voting. Our elections are key to ensuring public confidence in our democracy and failure to comprehensively reform the regulatory framework to take account of these issues is a risk we cannot afford to take.
A change is needed. The current system where a voter can be registered in multiple areas is “an open door” for manipulation! What other major system would remain unchanged for so long?
Wanna have hot-lovin’ conversations? You’re on the right way! – chatie.club/xxx
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