Today, the Oireachtas committee on the Eighth Amendment voted to recommend that the Irish people be allowed to vote on whether to repeal the Eighth Amendment, rather than replace it.
The committee is expected “to report its conclusions and recommendations to both Houses of the Oireachtas” by December 20. The 20-person committee, chaired by Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone, also voted on 12 other possible recommendations to be made.
It is expected that the recommendations made by the committee will greatly inform the text language of the referendum on the Eighth Amendment that will go before the Irish people in 2018.
The original motion, whether to recommend a full repeal (or to replace the constitutional amendment with different language), was passed 14-6 in favour of a full repeal.
The committee then voted on the 12 recommendations that emerged from the Citizens’ Assembly on the matter, which was concluded earlier this year.
The committee voted without division to approve a recommendation that abortion should be allowed where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the woman, and a second recommendation where there is the real and substantial threat of suicide. The committee also approved without division to recommend that abortion be available where there is serious risk to the physical health of the woman. Another recommendation that abortion be allowed where there is serious risk to the general health of the woman was also approved without division.
Divisions were challenged when the committee voted on whether to recommend access to abortion where there is “serious risk to the mental health of the woman.” After a vote, this recommendation was approved 16-4. Other recommendations covering any risk to the physical or mental of the woman were also adopted.
Perhaps most importantly, the committee voted to recommend legalising abortion up to 12 weeks, including through abortion pills to be supplied by GPs or other medical medical professionals. This vote was carried 12-5, with Sinn Féin’s delegates abstaining.
The official wording of this recommendation asserted that it would be “appropriate to deal with this issue by making the termination of pregnancy lawful with no restriction as to reason up to 12 weeks.”
The committee also voted to recommend legalising abortion in cases of rape, without division. A vote was then conducted on whether to allow for abortion in the cases of fatal-foetal abnormality that is likely to result in death before or shortly after birth, which was passed 18-3. Chairperson Noone included herself among the Tá’s on this vote, saying “she felt so strongly about it” that she had to vote.
A motion to recommend that abortion be legalised in cases where a foetus has a “significant abnormality” that is “not likely to result in death before or shortly after birth” was defeated 15-5. This was the first recommendation made by the Citizens’ Assembly that was not adopted by the Oireachtas Committee.
The final vote on Citizens’ Assembly recommendations, on whether to allow for access to abortion for socio-economic reasons, was similarly defeated 5-11, with five abstentions. This meant that 10 of the Citizens’ Assembly’s recommendations were approved by the Oireachtas Committee.
A late attempt was made to vote on recommending that abortion be accessible with “no restrictions as to reasons” without any gestational limits which was defeated by the committee.
The committee will now vote on ancillary motions put forward by members of the committee.
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