Zika virus, pregnancy risks raised in Dáil row on abortion

The implications of pregnancy and the risk of the Zika virus for Irish women travelling to Brazil for the Olympics were raised in the Dáil during a heated debate on abortion.

In a row over referring the issue of repealing the Eighth Amendment to a citizens’ assembly, People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith asked Taoiseach Enda Kenny if he would advise women going to the Olympics not to get pregnant because of the risk of the Zika virus, as the Brazilian government had advised women.

She added: "If they get pregnant while in Brazil and are at risk of a deformed foetal abnormality, will they return to Ireland to be told they cannot have medical treatment here?"

Mr Kenny said the Zika virus was not the only mosquito virus that could cause difficulties. It was not for him to dispense advice. He said the decision to travel "is a choice they must make themselves".

Assembly

The sharp exchanges emerged at Taoiseach’s questions. Mr Kenny had told the Dáil the assembly would be established within six months. No politicians would be involved and the Government would not be under any obligation to accept the assembly’s recommendations.

He said it would deal with the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, fixed-term parliaments and whether “super-referendum” days should be held, with a significant number of referendums on the same day.

Socialist Party TD Ruth Coppinger asked how the membership of the committee would be chosen. "Will it have a majority of women of childbearing age to deliberate on this topic? Will there be any bishops or religious representatives in the assembly?"

She also questioned why the Taoiseach was “outsourcing” the issue.

Mr Kenny said it was about “the people of the country having an interest in matters of life and death”, adding that the Constitution “belongs to the people”. He said it was “not true to say that it is only, unfortunately women who have to contend with crisis pregnancies who have an interest in this”.

Repeal

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the Eighth Amendment “should not be left to a citizens’ assembly at all”. And he said a “simple repeal is not an answer, in my view, because we still face the core issue of what the law will be”.

He asked if the assembly would be “decided by pollsters” with a polling company “again being recruited to conduct an assessment of what it thinks reflects a sample”.

Ms Smith said: “The key issue is a woman’s right to control her own body, and the men do not want to face up to that”.

She said they heard the Constitution belonged to the people, who decided what went in and was taken out.

Challenging Mr Kenny and Mr Martin, she asked: “Does it every cross your minds that our bodies belong to us as women and that it is up to us to decide what we do with our bodies?” She asked what Mr Kenny was afraid of about putting the issue of abortion to a referendum.

The Taoiseach said: “There should be no reason we should not consult a representative group of people.” The previous constitutional convention was made up of “ordinary people from all over the country based on geography, age, gender”.