Never thought i’d agree with Clare Daly on anything but fair play to her on pushing such a volatile issue.

Whatever you think about the governments poor handling of current issues- the fact that they think it’s ok to force women onto a plane to the UK during what is already traumatic time is a disgrace.

Can’t blame it on the Troika or external economic forces or the EU- they are just too weak willed to try and do something controversial.

If you oppose abortion because of religious or other beliefs, then of course if you find yourself pregnant with an unwanted child you should seek another solution, but why on earth should a woman with no such ideology have to succumb to yours? I’ve seen rape victims in psychiatric hospitals catatonic with depression, horror and fear. To insist that that woman then progresses with an ensuing pregnancy and childbirth is inhuman. Pregnancy through incest – another horror! A baby wuth terrible handicaps detected before birth – if the parents do not feel able to rear such a child, why would you force them to bear that child anyway? Babies who would not survive birth? Why force the woman to go to full term with no hope of a viable child? My grandmother was pro-choice, because she thought it was a greater cruelty to bear an unwanted, unloved child. In 2010 at least 4000 irish women sought abortions abroad and who knows how many bought abortion inducing medication from internet?

It’s about time. Based on the amount of women forced to travel to the UK every year, it’s time to stop ignoring this problem and legislate for it. Just another example of the hangover of the church state. Woman have to have the right to have control over their own bodies. It’s unacceptable that even the very limiting scenarios in the X case have not yet been introduced.

Alice I hope you or a loved one never finds themselves in a situation where it is your only option. It amazes me how religion results in a complete lack of compassion for women

I can’t help but laugh at the government. They are quick to act on EU legislation that we were in breach of in relation to copyright but then when it comes to the X case … ? … nothing!

You see that would be progressive. Weather we like it or not we are still under the influence of the catholic church. Who keep us in the 1950s era. Its the 21st century woman should have the right to do as they please when it comes to abortion. But no, this will be kept on the long finger, simply because this government doesn’t have the b**ls to do anything about it.

Alice did you actually watch the debate last night? Only one TD was actually against it, the rest said they were voting against it only because the purposed legislation didn’t go far enough and that they were waiting for the expert group to report back. The Adrian Kennedy show had a live poll last night and 81% were in favour of the abortion so I hate to break it to you but it will be here whether you like it or not.

Women have the right to choose. In this country it would appear we feel our religious virtues oppose such a thing as abortion, yet religion has provided a platform for abuse and oppression within this country. The x case itself became a scandal based on abortion . The CHILD in question was vilified yet she was a Victim of rape. Yet this appeared to fade into the background. The sad point is that there are children born into situations that are not suitable, dangerous situations and situations that may lead to abuse and neglect , can we as a country say that this life is a right ? That where Choice has been removed from a mother to be that it will be a fairy tale ending ??? The simple fact is some women don’t want to have children and choose to have abortions. And some women can’t afford to go to England and have abortions so negative situations for both that child and parent are created. High risk . We need to view the whole picture and the fall out . Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that by legalising abortion neglect and abuse of children in the home will vanish. But we have to look at the broader sociological implications !

Yet AGAIN here we see two-faced Labour saying one thing and the next day, doing another.
They are a total disgrace to the country and their own name.

Shame on all of them including Gilmore.
Spineless, two-faced wimps.

I have to say I find the “she can always put it up for adoption” line REPUGNANT.
Do you have any idea how many children already exist – as in, they’ve already been born – who need parents?

There are kids in orphanages and care homes all over the world who need parents.. But I guess they don’t matter eh? Keep talking about the right to life, you show yourself up as the hypocrite then.. You don’t care about life once it’s out of the uterus, stop being so disingenuous.

Put bluntly, Clare Daly put her bill forward now to embarass Labour. She was playing with politics and succeeded in making Labour look bad. Why would Labour, soon after getting into power, set up an expert group in December of 2011 to report on the case in 6 months, only to cut the expert group off at the knees by supporting legislation not based on what the expert group will report?
Clare Daly knew the expert group are reporting soon – by late June or early July. Why would she not wait, given that they will substantively deal with the ECHR judgement and recommend legislation?

As a pro-choice activist, I am not happy about today. However, the committee Labour set up to come back with recommendations based on the ECHR case will in all probability go further and be more comprehensive than the Clare Daly’s legislation – I hope that it will recommend the decriminalisation of women and purge the old 1866 act which sends a woman and also abortion providers to prison for life for procurring and providing an abortion, which Clare Daly’s legislation didn’t do, and I also expect it to try and cater for foetal abnormality and give guidelines to doctors, which Clare Daly’s legislation also didn’t do. Having Clare Daly’s legislation in place with Labour support means it would ensure the committee was reporting on something already legislated for and legislated improperly, and it also would mean even more work to modify legislation that would already be passed on by June/July.

The three Ministers at the Department of Health today said they would not fudge the issue this time. No excuses for past in action – and no excuses if it happens again this time – but I firmly believe that this time it will be different.

The pro-lifers have been pretty quiet about this legislation. Usually, they are far nastier and aggressive than they have been. That is not because they are weak – it is because they realise that this legislation would not pass, but that there will be legislation in the near future that will pass. And then the pro-lifers will become very active. Any legislation gets passed has to be watertight, because it will be challenged by the lifers.

Previous committees dealing with abortion were Oireachtas committees – this committee is an expert group, set up by the Government – and they are under orders to report how to implement the ECHR judgement – not tell the Oireachtas about the judgement, but tell them how to implement it. This committee really is different to previous ones.

Clare Daly is an extremist

“only a first step for abortion to be legalised in all circumstances.”

The phrase “all circumstances” is ominous. Being 8 months pregnant is a circumstance, finding out the baby has Down’s is a circumstance. Does Clare Daly draw the line anywhere at all?

She follows it up with “[100,000 abortions] have taken place in Britain for many different reasons, none of them easy, all of them valid.”

All of them valid?? How on earth can she know that unless she thinks that the desire to have an abortion makes that desire valid per se? So when all those Chinese people abort girls, which Ivana Bacik calls ‘gendercide’, that’s a valid reason?

Religious beliefs are not part of the discussion here. This is a basic human rights issue. What about the baby’s right to life . It should not matter how it was conceived or what it’s life expectancy is. It still has a right to be born. There are 1000’s of couples in Ireland crying out for babies to adopt. No child is unwanted . They are all wanted by someone. Even disabled babies are adopted.

But Labour didn’t say anything about the expert committee etc. in their press statement, that was FG’s excuse. The IT reported:

‘However, Labour Party TDs will be instructed to vote as part of the Government against the Bill. A spokeswoman said the issue of abortion was a sensitive one and should not be dealt with through a Private Members’ Bill.’

What kind of waffle is that? It isn’t like this is the first time the LP has been in government since the x-case anyway. How is it that they have never brought forward such a bill yet Clare Daly has done so in her first term? Actions speak louder then words. Well done to Daly, Collins and Wallace. Shame on the rest of them.

I agree. Look at pictures of aborted babies you who support killing them, then tell yourselves its ‘compassionate’. Its cowardly and inhuman. Babies are babies no matter how they were conceived.

Better dead than in foster care?

It is so disingenuous to call this a “Medical Treatment” Bill when you then go on to unintentionally acknowledge that abortion is not medically necessary.

This is just leverage to bring in abortion on demand.

@eoin An unborn child is not part of his/ her mother. That is clearly refuted by science. An unborn child has her/his own DNA and is a distinct person. you cannot just pick an arbitrary point in defiance of all evidence and state this is when life begins!

However, this is not the issue at stake in this debate, which is on the issue of appropriate medical care in pregnancy. And it seems superfluous, seeing that the WHO has reported that Ireland had the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world. Irish women are never declined life-saving treatment.

Never agree to murder always protect life and always protect the most vulnerable the unborn child.Cherish life not destroy it.

Orla there is always an alternative to abortion. That is letting the baby live. Supporting the mother until she decides whether to keep the baby or not.There is no medical case where abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. There are cases where the baby dies as a result of life saving treatment but that is not abortion.