Meeting woman with a crisis pregnancy changed Tánaiste’s views on abortion

Tánaiste Simon Coveney has told how a meeting with a young woman carrying a baby with a fatal foetal abnormality who was faced with going to the UK for a termination led him to change his views on the proposed legislation to be introduced if the Eighth Amendment is repealed.

Mr Coveney told the launch of the Fine Gael Yes campaign in Cork that he was "deeply conflicted" earlier this year by the recommendation from the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment for unrestricted access to abortion up to 12 weeks.

He explained that at the start of this year, he was one of the undecided voters, whom he believes will decide the referendum on May 25th, as he recognised that the status quo was “letting Irish women down to the point of endangering them”.

"I also knew that thousands of women were having abortions in secret and abroad, often on their own, away from home or hidden in their own homes - purchasing drugs online and with no medical support or advice except from a Google search."

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He also recognised that, as Tánaiste, he had "a responsibility to change this ugly reality" and to face up to some truths that Ireland hasn't been able to face up to, so it was from this position he had to confront himself over the Oireachtas Committee recommendation to allow abortion up to 12 weeks.

“That single recommendation though has, in many ways, dominated simplistic headlines and debates without reflecting the detail of the law the Government is now proposing if we vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment.”

“I confronted myself - to actually look at what a system could be like, to play my part in the government to provide detail and reassurance on the law we would enact if allowed to do so after this referendum,” he said.

“And so I am voting Yes on May 25th because I don’t want to go on with my daily life, knowing that at least nine or ten women every single day are being exported for their problems because we cannot face up to that reality here.”

“I am voting ‘Yes’ because I don’t want to wait for the newspaper story that I believe is inevitable one morning that tells us a young woman has haemorrhaged and died alone because of abortion drugs bought online.”

Speaking after Cork couple Tim and Susan Corcoran had told how they were forced to go to the UK for a termination after their baby was diagnosed at 14 weeks with a fatal foetal abnormality, Mr Coveney said he didn't want anyone else to experience what the Corcorans had to go through.

“I am voting Yes because I want an Ireland where women’s health is of primary consideration and I am voting Yes so that no other family has to go through what Susan and Tim have been through - we can’t allow the status quo to continue for another generation.”

Mr Coveney then revealed that he had met with a young woman from Co Cork who had come to him to tell him a story similar to the Corcorans and it had a profound impact on his thinking in relation to the government’s obligation to provide proper health care here for such women.

“The moment that I really began to engage with this debate, apart from my own personal experiences with pregnancy with my wife, was when a young girl from Co Cork came to see me, I don’t want to name her but she told me a very similar story to Susan and Tim and it was horrific.

“And so legislators and politicians who are exposed to the facts and the truth have an obligation to talk about that if they are able to - not everybody can - so I intend to be vocal on this campaign, talking to the 30 per cent or so of undecided voters from now until May 25th

“I say that because I believe they are the people who will hopefully carry this referendum and they will do that if we treat them with respect and bring them with us based on stories and facts and the realities of Ireland and they will leave yesterday behind if we talk to them honestly.”