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05/10/2017
SIPTU Backs Referendum To Repeal 8th Amendment
Trade union SIPTU has announced it is backing the campaign for a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment.
Members of the organisation voted overwhelmingly in support of the motion at its Biennial Delegate Conference in Cork today, 05 October.
The 8th amendment is a constitutional recognition of an unborn child's life, therefore making it illegal for any government to introduce legislation allowing for terminations in the womb except in exceptional circumstances.
However, SIPTU National Executive Committee member Suzanna Griffin, who proposed the motion on behalf of the union's Equality Committee, said it was "unacceptable" that women live in a country where the law "puts their health and lives at risk".
"Some women have to undergo torturous situations, for example when a woman is pregnant with a foetus with a fatal foetal abnormality, or pregnant as the result of rape," she said.
"So what happens? Women travel aboard for terminations. The hypocrisy of this situation is shameful.
"But this motion is not asking any delegate here to make a moral or personal decision on the provision of abortion in Ireland. It is merely asking you to support the call for a referendum so that the people of Ireland can make a democratic decision as they did in 1983.
"The women of Ireland deserve our support on this and people in Ireland deserve an opportunity to vote on the 8th Amendment given that no person of child bearing age has had the opportunity to make this decision themselves."
(LM)
Members of the organisation voted overwhelmingly in support of the motion at its Biennial Delegate Conference in Cork today, 05 October.
The 8th amendment is a constitutional recognition of an unborn child's life, therefore making it illegal for any government to introduce legislation allowing for terminations in the womb except in exceptional circumstances.
However, SIPTU National Executive Committee member Suzanna Griffin, who proposed the motion on behalf of the union's Equality Committee, said it was "unacceptable" that women live in a country where the law "puts their health and lives at risk".
"Some women have to undergo torturous situations, for example when a woman is pregnant with a foetus with a fatal foetal abnormality, or pregnant as the result of rape," she said.
"So what happens? Women travel aboard for terminations. The hypocrisy of this situation is shameful.
"But this motion is not asking any delegate here to make a moral or personal decision on the provision of abortion in Ireland. It is merely asking you to support the call for a referendum so that the people of Ireland can make a democratic decision as they did in 1983.
"The women of Ireland deserve our support on this and people in Ireland deserve an opportunity to vote on the 8th Amendment given that no person of child bearing age has had the opportunity to make this decision themselves."
(LM)
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