Simon Harris says remove abortion from Constitution

Health Minister Simon Harris has said that abortion, and when it should be allowed for Irish women, must be taken out of the Constitution.

The Fine Gael minister said that the right to access abortion in cases of rape, fatal foetal abnormalities, and incest will have to be addressed. His remarks, in an interview with Newstalk, come after an Oireachtas committee cleared the way last week for next year’s referendum on abortion, agreeing that the Constitution should be changed.

Mr Harris told Newstalk that he also had an “open mind” on recommendations from the Citizens Assembly that there be unrestricted access to abortion in Ireland for pregnancies up to 12 weeks.

“I’m still grappling with a lot of the finer detail, but I have clarity in my own mind [over what] I believe should happen, regarding the Constitution. I don’t believe the place to address the issue of abortion and women’s health is the Irish Constitution, and I believe whatever structures we wish to put in place should take place in legislation, rather than the Constitution.”

There was a “rigidity” in the Constitution on abortion, he said.

“I think there’s an overwhelming majority of people in this country who feel that there should be change for people who experience fatal foetal abnormality. But when the Oireachtas looked at that last time, when we were doing the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act, we couldn’t address that issue as legislators.

“We have an opportunity, here, as a country, to finally put a question to the people, give the people an opportunity to decide whether they wish to bring around change... and then allow legislators actually put in place legislation.”

The health minister said that whatever was put in place needed to be “legally and medically workable”, and he also wanted doctors to be “empowered to make clinical decisions on behalf of women and infants”.

Meanwhile, Mr Harris and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will today turn the sods on construction of the new children’s hospital and the new rehabilitation hospital.