“We’ve allowed abortion to continue by just turning a blind eye and I don’t think that’s right.”
If the Eighth Amendment is successfully repealed, legislation could be published before the summer recess and enacted into law by the end of 2018, Leo Varadkar has said.
Speaking on The Last Word with Matt Cooper ahead of the referendum, the Taoiseach responded to former Fine Gael leader, John Bruton’s criticism that the government’s proposal was inconsistent and “so liberal.”
Stating that Bruton was “coming from a different perspective,” the Taoiseach defended his government’s proposal of unrestricted access in the first 12 weeks by observing: “I don’t think a six week old foetus has the same right to life as my sister.”
“Those early couple of weeks aren’t the same as when you get to the point of viability,” the Taoiseach insisted, while also pointing out that Bruton is opposed to emergency contraception too.
When asked by the host to defend his changing position towards the right to access an abortion, he said: “There wasn’t a day. It that wasn’t my thoughts crystalised suddenly.
“They’ve changed over time as a lot of people’s views have. It was a couple of things, life experience.
“I think when you’re younger, I saw things more black and white than I do now.
“People have told me their stories about crisis pregnancies… I’ve talked to the women in my life, my sister, my mum.”
He also cited the Miss Y case as one story that changed his perspective, saying: “An asylum seeker who had been raped, who had become pregnant in Ireland and, being an asylum seeker she wasn’t in a position to leave the country and wanted to end her pregnancy.”
The main flaw he pointed our during the discussion however was the fact that “abortion in Ireland is already a reality”, so by granting the right to travel, coupled with the fact that women purchase illegal abortion pills online:
“What we do is we export our problems and import our solutions. I don’t think it’s sustainable. It needs to be changed.”
He later went on to say, “We’ve allowed abortion to continue by just turning a blind eye and I don’t think that’s right. That’s not what a modern society should do.”
Varadkar ended the conversation by saying he expected the majority of TDs, on both sides, will respect the public vote and that those who back the No campaign will not obstruct legislation if there is a Yes majority.
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