‘Abortion clause the envy of hardliners’
As the deputy demanded that a referendum be held on repealing the clause that insists the life of the mother and the unborn must be treated equally, Ms Coppinger questioned Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s role at a mass rally against fundamentalism in Paris at the weekend.
“You strutted and you strolled up the Champs Élysées with loads of other Western leaders ostensibly against religious fundamentalism while you are presiding at home over a host of laws, including blasphemy by the way, but also a law that is so anti-women so mediaeval and so misogynistic...”
Ms Coppinger said during leaders questions as she insisted religious fundamentalists around the world “envied” the eighth amendment.
The TD urged Mr Kenny to include a repeal measure on the ballot paper when the country goes to the polls to decide on extending marriage rights to same sex couples, and reducing the age of presidential candidates in referendums this May.
Ms Coppinger said that the family of a women who had been kept alive due to her carrying a 15-week-old foetus had been put through a “macabre ordeal” due to the eight amendment as their request for her life support system to be switched-off was played out in the courts
