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The Last Word With Matt Cooper

Has The Eighth Amendment Done What It Was Supposed To?

Ahead of Friday's referendum, we heard from campaigners on both sides about their views on the Eight...
TodayFM
TodayFM

6:49 PM - 21 May 2018



The Last Word With Matt Cooper

Has The Eighth Amendment Done What It Was Supposed To?

TodayFM
TodayFM

6:49 PM - 21 May 2018

Listen to this episode



Ahead of Friday's referendum, we heard from campaigners on both sides about their views on the Eighth Amendment and what Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had to say earlier in the programme.

Cora Sherlock, spokesperson for the Love Both pro-life campaign, says repealing the Eighth Amendment "would allow for UK-style abortion up to viability, which is something people should be very worried about."

"This is abortion on demand we're talking about, and when you introduce that you will eventually have more abortions."

Mairead Enright, senior law lecturer at Birmingham University and a representative of Lawyers for Choice, says it's wrong to use the phrase abortion on demand, as "it's a political phrase, not a legal phrase."

She says that if the Eighth Amendment is repealed, women would be able to access abortion without giving a reason, but "that's not to say women don't have good reasons for accessing abortion."

Caroline Simons, a lawyer and spokesperson from Love Both, feels that people are being "led to believe that Irish women are not being properly cared for because of the Eighth Amendment, which is untrue."

She feels terminations are sometimes necessary to save women's lives, "but that's not what's being proposed here. This is all about ending babies' lives."

Colm O'Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International, says: "Restricting access to abortion gravely violates the rights of women and girls in Ireland."

"The Eighth Amendment is frankly a grotesque experiment which hasn't done what it was meant to do. The suffering and trauma caused by the Eighth Amendment has been revealed over the last 35 years."

To catch the full chat press the play button on the image on the top of the screen


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