VOTE THAT WILL SPLIT THE NATION
Special committee decides in favour of allowing terminations
VOTERS will go to the polls next summer for an abortion referendum to remove the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution.
It comes after politicians of the special Oireachtas committee voted in favour of allowing terminations in pregnancies of up to 12 weeks.
The poll is set to split the country and could become more heated and contentious than the equal marriage vote.
The Eighth Amendment recognises the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn child and it has been part of our law since 1983. Yesterday, the committee recommended to legislate to allow abortion in the case of a risk to the woman’s health, either physical or mental. The decision has now cleared the way for a national vote on the issue next summer.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar indicated in the Dail that he would like to see it take place in May.
After three months of arduous and often fraught debate on the contentious issue, the majority of the special Joint Committee on the Eighth Committee of the Constitution passed the motion to remove it.
Labour’s Jan O’sullivan formally proposed to repeal Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution, which is the Eighth Amendment. Ms O’sullivan, in putting forward her motion, said she believes nothing should be put back in its place. But other TDS, such as James Browne from Fianna Fail and Hildegarde Naughton of Fine Gael expressed views they would like to see another provision replace the Eighth.
The pro-life politicians led by Tipperary TD Mattie Mcgrath tabled a countermotion calling for its retention. He was supported by Independent Senator Ronan Mullen and Fine Gael TD Peter Jan O’sullivan Fitzpatrick, who have both been campaigning to retain the Eighth. A motion to allow unrestricted abortions up to 12 weeks was passed by 12 votes to five. This provision gets around many legislative difficulties, including the legal quagmire of having to prove a rape if the proposal was to allow terminations in cases of rape.
Another one of the key motions passed by the committee was to allow for mothers to legally obtain abortions if their unborn child was considered to have a fatal foetal abnormality.
There was a small amendment put to the motion that the doctor recommending an abortion in such cases must be “acting in good faith”. Committee chair, Fine Gael Senator Catherine