Eight years ago, we were pounding pavements and having thousands of conversations. We won the most important right to bodily autonomy for women in this country in history by means of the efforts of a grassroots movement. Now, some people seem to think that they can roll back that right. We are seeing signs of this even in the Dáil today in some of the comments being made. I want to talk about what the Government has said about legal nuances. In the context of someone travelling in the case of a fatal foetal abnormality, there never should have been a distinction between fatal foetal abnormality and severe foetal abnormality in the first place. There is no such distinction in any other country. It is unscientific because doctors cannot predict it with surety. In other countries, they are just abnormalities. Because of cowardly and conservative politicians and in order to get Simon Coveney and others to agree to vote for repeal, that distinction was put in place here. However, that is still no reason to vote against the Bill. Let us be clear, parties and individuals opposing this Bill favour forced birth because, basically, they are saying that anyone who is pregnant - outside of the existing strict criteria - should just be forced to continue with the pregnancy but that there is also the safety valve of the UK and other countries. I was very disappointed but not a bit surprised to hear Deputy David Cullinane say that he does not agree. Who cares if he does not agree? It should not be his decision to tell a pregnant woman what to do with her life and her situation. I found it very arrogant of Deputy Cullinane to stand there and say that. I was not surprised because I saw Sinn Fein rushing through a Bill here last Thursday on a three-day wait. I had a Bill on the three-day wait. It is great that Sinn Féin has one eight years after repeal. I knew it was doing it. I feared that and my cynicism proved correct that it would not vote for this Bill tonight. Sinn Féin would say it has its Bill and they did not need to vote for this Bill. It is cynical. It is conservative. It is a shift to the right by Sinn Féin-----

Sentiment score: -0.05

-----because it supported Bríd Smith's Bill in the previous Dáil and now it is responding to the far right and other individuals who criticised it on the vote recently. Now, it is circling the wagons and women's rights have to pay the price. It really is shocking but it is good to bring clarity for people as to where parties stand. Let us be clear: decriminalising is to prevent women being criminalised as well for taking an abortion pill after 12 weeks or whatever in their bedroom. However, it is also to get rid of the chilling effect that prevents doctors from acting to save lives and save health, and it is also forcing doctors to send women abroad with abnormalities because they are not deadly sure. That is why it is decriminalising. Stop pretending that it is protecting women and, really, that nonsense where it tries to say that it was because of that. It is very disappointing to hear that Sinn Féin is going to basically scupper this Bill tonight. We have to put pressure on it to change tack.

Sentiment score: 0.05