SINN FÉIN LEADER Mary Lou McDonald was joined by her party colleagues today to call for a Yes vote in the referendum.
Speaking at the event in Temple Bar today, McDonald called on the men and women of Ireland to vote Yes on 25 May.
“We may not know all of the names… but what we do know is that women that become pregnant as a result of rape are being forced to travel,” she said, adding that as a political leader she believes she has a “duty” to act.
McDonald said that as a mother, she wants her children to grow up in a society that does not punish women going through a traumatic experience.
“I am the mother of two children, including a teenage daughter, and I want them to grow up in a compassionate, open and caring Ireland, an Ireland that doesn’t punish tragedy, an Ireland that doesn’t turn its back on its women and girls. I want my daughter and her friends to live in an Ireland where they can make decisions about their own healthcare,” she said.
She also spoke about the difficult cases Ireland has seen over the years – such as Savita Halappanavar and the Miss P case.
“We need to listen and we need to actually think of the father who had to go to the courts to allow his daughter die with dignity in 2015. His daughter was 15 weeks pregnant and was kept alive for 24 days after she was determined to be medically brain-dead because a foetal heartbeat was detected in her womb. History recorded her as Miss P.”
She said the chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Peter Boylan gave distressing testimony during the abortion committee hearings, in which he detailed how nurses and hospital staff ”tried to shield that woman’s young children from the fact that their mother was decomposing before them”. The family eventually had to take their case to the High Court in order to have her life support turned off.
“Now these cases are harrowing – but these are real – these are lived experiences by Irish women and these are the hard cases created by bad law,” said McDonald.
No time for complacency
The party’s president said the Yes side cannot become “complacent” stating that the referendum is by no means won yet.
Sinn Féin’s policy on abortion is as follows. At the party’s Ard Fheis this year, it voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution.
However, no further detail was given on how the party planned to deal with the legislation, which will allow for unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks.
This issue will now be dealt with after the referendum when the party plans to hold a special Ard Fheis to determine party policy on the issue in June.
At the February Ard Fheis, Sinn Féin also voted down the option for elected representatives to be allowed to vote on the issue of abortion according to their conscience or personal opinion.
This means TDs like Peadar Toíbín, who is actively canvassing against party policy, will face consequences if he votes against legislation or party policy in the Dáil (something McDonald warned about this week).
Addressing the issue of 12 weeks, McDonald acknowledged today that it is “challenging for some people”.
She said there will be “time and space” to debate the proposed legislation after the referendum.
“The imperative first is to secure the repeal of the Eighth Amendment – nothing else can happen unless that happens first,” she said, adding that discussion and debate about the 12-week legislation remains a matter of “theory and an academic exercise” while the amendment remains in the Irish Constitution.
When would she like to see abortion legislation introduced (in the case the referendum passes)?
McDonald would not put a precise time on it, but added:
“I would like to think that you would have law on the books by early autumn. I think you are into election territory potentially and so on if we start slipping into Budget time and beyond.”
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