It’s expected that the Oireachtas Committee on the 8th amendment will vote in favour of legalising unrestricted abortion access for up to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy later today.
Other expected topics set to be discussed today will be the decriminalisation of abortion and the improvement of sex education in Irish schools.
While members of the Oireachtas Committee all have different views on which way the new abortion legislation should look like, its been reported that the vast majority are in favour of repealing the 8th amendment.
A series of amendments proposed by committee members relating to different possible circumstances in which abortion should be made available will also be discussed today. These include gestation, viability and acceptable grounds for termination, rape or cases of incest.
Prof Tom O’Malley BL has announced in previous hearings, that cases in which a woman is seeking an abortion after being raped, her case may be used against her as evidence, thus prejudicing a trial.
The use of unregulated abortion pills sought from less favourable sources is another reason why committee members are set to support unrestricted access.
It’s believed that Independent Senator Ronan Mullen, Independent TD Mattie McGrath and Fine Gael’s Peter Fitzpatrick are set to vote against the measure. Both McGrath and Mullen have claimed in recent times that the committee’s witness list is imbalanced.
The Sinn Féin party doesn’t allow for its members to support unrestricted abortion – meaning that three of the committee’s members may abstain from the vote.
While Fianna Fáil TDs Anne Rabbitte and James Browne are understood to be in favour of allowing abortions in the cases of fatal foetal abnormalities, incest and rape – but not unrestricted terminations.
When posed the question: ”Do you think Ireland should change its laws to allow abortion in more circumstances than is currently permitted? Yes or no?,” back in September of this year, James Browne TD failed to respond to the question.
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