Owen says abortion Bill is hypocritical

The Fine Gael deputy leader, Ms Nora Owen, has described the proposed abortion referendum as "a cynical, hypocritical exercise" by the Government.

"It is merely political expediency to bring forth this mishmash of a constitutional referendum tied in with legislation that will tie the hands of us elected representatives.

"We are having a referendum because the Government, made up of Fianna Fβil and the Progressive Democrats, was not satisfied by the answer given by the people in 1992 and it wants to go back - repeatedly if necessary - until it gets the answer it wants from the people. How insulting is that to the people?"

She said that since the Government had unexpectedly published the legislation in October, she had been beset with a variety of emotions. "My first emotions were anger, annoyance and frustration that the Government was to put us through the difficulties of having another referendum, given that the country has spoken twice, in 1983 and in 1992.

"I moved to fear and emotion for those women who would be talked about in a way that we have heard already in the House today and will continue to hear as this debate progresses.

"These are women who every day either make the lonely journey to England to have an abortion or make the decision to keep a pregnancy that may cause them huge difficulty. These include pregnancies caused perhaps by rape, incest or some other horrendous action, and, possibly, influenced by their own mental infirmity.

"Today, as I listened to some of the contributions in the House, I have moved back to a sense of anger. We do not need another referendum on this issue." Ms Owen said the members of the Government should hang their heads in shame and tell the women they were appearing to try to help that they would give them what assistance they could to prevent crisis pregnancies.

"The Government should give them all the advice it can, instead of treating them like idiots and dividing their bodies into two parts above and below the neck." Ms Marian McGennis (FF, Dublin Central) said society had not changed dramatically since the 1920s and 1930s, when women went away to have babies and returned home alone.

"One of the practical problems is that there is no place in Ireland where a woman can legally secure an abortion. When the masters of the main maternity hospitals made their presentations to the all-party committee, they informed us that even if the people decided not to roll back the decision in the X case, they would not provide abortions, as defined in the Bill, in their hospitals."