Government TDs say they think legislation on abortion can be passed by October or November.
After Friday’s resounding yes vote, there’s been calls for the Dáil to sit through the summer to ensure it gets passed quickly.
In the wake of the historic vote to lift the ban on abortion, the focus has now shifted to how to turn this into law.
The general outline of the proposed Bill has been drafted and published already, with Health Minister Simon Harris meeting his officials to discuss it today.
The country’s electorate voted on a margin of roughly two to one in favour of Repealing the Eighth, while here in Clare, over 64% of the valid votes cast were in favour of repeal.
Fine Gael Senator, Martin Conway says this mandate makes it easier to put the legislation in place, but he insists that there’s an onus on the Government to take constructive suggestions from pro-life campaigners into consideration:
Clare’s Fianna Fáil TD doesn’t believe the referendum will have a major impact on his party’s chances in the next election.
By a slender majority, one exit poll showed most of his party’s supporters voted no, despite leader Michael Martin coming out in favour of repealing the 8th.
Deputy Timmy Dooley doesn’t think it will be the only issue people will be making their decision to vote on in the next election:
A spokesman for the Clare Pro Life Campaign has described the result as a catastrophe.
Michael Leahy feels their campaign was lost in the last ten days, when people were perhaps being influenced by stories from women who travelled abroad.
He says he doesn’t know if people’s vote in the next general election will be influenced, but he believes those who voted no, won’t forget those who advocated a yes vote:
Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin has said he’d support the Dáil sitting through the summer to pass this law – such a call has been made, but there are also warnings that the law shouldn’t be rushed through either.
Some measures to make it easier for women to procure abortions before the law comes in have been suggested.
One is letting doctors here share medical files with their counterparts in the UK for those women who want to travel.
Another has been de-criminalising the abortion pill, but Minister Regina Doherty has said that can’t be done yet.
Clare FM’s James Mulhall is in Shannon where he’s been gauging the views of people there on the result, the aftermath and what must happen next:
