Why I am voting Yes
I am voting Yes because the decision on whether to have an abortion should be the decision of the one who is pregnant. No woman or girl in Ireland should have to travel through the streets of a foreign country to get the services they’ve decided is the best for their own circumstances. It is a moral decision, but one which they are in the best position to make. This is not a decision that should be interrogated before being allowed. It is one of the most intimate decisions a woman might have to make, and one that I can’t begin to think I could imagine, that someone would be compelled to be pregnant when it is their clear wish not to be.
Most abortions occur early in pregnancy, for very understandable and intuitive reasons. Particularly at this stage, we should not intervene when a woman or girl has to consider the whole of her life and current personal circumstances before considering whether she wishes to continue to bring a child to term. I do understand the case that as a pregnancy develops, and particularly as it approaches viability, termination should be regulated, provided that life and health of the woman is given clear priority. Abortions that occur later in term are those that happen for the most difficult and tragic of situations, whether for the woman of for the child she and her family were expecting, and these circumstances need to be facilitated. Women in this country need access to this care here in Ireland, rather than allowing abortion take place in another state, when travel is not possible for many. Since 1992, we have had the constitutional hypocrisy of saying we value the life of the unborn equally with that of a woman while she is in Ireland, but allowing terminations abroad. This affects all who have to travel, but especially those who can’t, whether because of income, their immigration status, or perhaps they are in an abusive and controlling relationship.
At many times during this campaign, I’ve been struck by how important it is to listen to women. This vote matters so much to their access to decisions about their lives, their health and their families. And how we vote says much for them than simply our view on abortion. I’ve met men who say they will opt out of this one, as it’s a women’s issue. It should be a matter for individual women, but unless and until we repeal Article 40.3.3º from the Constitution in its current form, it is our responsibility of all of us to vote to allow this. Women may bear the physical burden of pregnancy, but they don’t become pregnant on their own, nor should they bear the burdens on the own of raising a child if they decide to do so.
We were warned that this would be a bitter and divisive campaign. My faint memory of the 2002 vote to prevent women who were at a risk of suicide from accessing abortion made me think that could be so. But this campaign has been different, though difficult all times. The Irish people have opened up about the reality of abortion as part of life in this country, and whatever the result, that won’t go away. It was put to the Assembly, then the Committee. On both occasions, after hearing the evidence, they supported access to abortion after repeal of the Eighth Amendment, surprising those who thought the process would tend towards a conservative outcome. Many thought that proposal would be too broad for public support. Until recent weeks, I feared they may be right. I’m more hopeful now, but not complacent.
We need to vote Yes tomorrow for all those who will continue to be affected by it, every day, if we don’t.
