May
17
2017
Lynn Ruane To Join Oireachtas Eighth Amendment Committee
Independent Senator Lynn Ruane is an active supporter of abortion rights and supports full bodily autonomy and integrity for all Irish women, irrespective of socio-economic status and income level. She has vocally campaigned for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment, both within the Irish students’ movement as President of Trinity College’s Students’ Union and as a public representative since her election to Seanad Éireann last April. She campaigns for choice and for the State to trust Irish women to make their own healthcare decisions.
Independent Senator Lynn Ruane said:
“The Citizen’s Assembly should be applauded for their careful, considered and compassionate work on the Eighth Amendment. They listened to expert evidence across the ethical, medical and legal fields and came to the conclusion that Irish women need and deserve choice in making decisions about their own reproductive health. The Assembly has spoken and now the Oireachtas must act.”
“I am excited to be joining the Eighth Amendment committee and wholeheartedly reject the apparently widely accepted belief that its role will be to somehow ‘water down’ the recommendations of the assembly. A significant majority of the Assembly recommended that abortion be made available to women by request up until a 12 week gestational limit and this sets the context of the work of the committee.”
“Any retreat from this position and the introduction of a more limited abortion access framework will simply be a punishment for disadvantaged, minority and marginalised women who cannot afford to travel abroad. If a woman without the necessary means to travel wishes to terminate a pregnancy outside of the grounds of rape, incest, risk to health or fatal foetal abnormality, we force her into an impossible situation that effectively criminalises her for her lack of available finance.”
“We cannot stand over the introduction of an abortion access regime that criminalises a woman because she cannot afford to travel and criminalises her for being poor. The Citizens’ Assembly recognised this with their inclusion of socio-economic circumstances within their recommendations. It will be my highest priority on the committee to ensure it is vindicated in the committee’s report and resulting legislation.”
