The Government's amendment to a motion from the Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution has been described as a "disgraceful manoeuvre".
Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger told the Dáil as the debate began that some of the architects of the Eighth Amendment were still in Government.
She said the momentum for repeal was obvious and people were not prepared to wait for incremental change.
Ms Coppinger said 12 women travelled from Ireland every day for an abortion, and people were accessing abortion pills.
The bill proposes to hold a referendum to delete from the Constitution the 1983 amendment which guarantees the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn.
She pointed out that the AAA-PBP proposal came four years after the death of Savita Halappanavar.
"The key point is we must keep women's bodies out of the Constitution", she said.
People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith reminded the Dáil of the case of Amanda Mellet, whose experience of fatal foetal abnormality was the subject of a critical UN report.
She also criticised the Citizens' Assembly and the manner in which a polling company picked the participants.
She told the Dáil that she had protested during the 'X Case' and 21 years later "the same bunch of cowards had absented themselves".
Ms Smith said it was like the "Three Monkeys", with the "hypocrisy of close your eyes, shut your mouth, pretend it wasn't happening".
She described herself as "extraordinarily angry" at the Independent Alliance, but she said the AAA-PBP were furious with Independent TDs Katherine Zappone, Finian McGrath and John Halligan.
Ms Smith held up a packet of abortion pills, which she said was easy to obtain over the internet and, pointing to the public gallery, said the "young women up there are doing that".
She said the World Health Organistion said the pill is safe "it is affordable and you can get it here in this State. You can also get 14 years for procuring it, for taking it and for helping yourself to have an abortion at home.
"I think there is probably, if they put their hands up, a load of them that you could probably arrest and fill two wings of Mountjoy with. You could arrest me and give me 14 years, but you ain’t go to do because what’s in your books and what’s in your laws, you know if you dare try to implement it, you would bring hellfire and brimstone down on this house and wider society", she said.
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Ahead of the debate the Independent Alliance denied it had done a U-turn after ministers agreed a deal which will avert a threatened Cabinet split on the private members’ bill to repeal the Eighth Amendment.
The IA said there is timeline in place for the Oireachtas to consider the matter.
A special Oireachtas committee is to be established which will respond to the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on the issue within six months.
Work on establishing that committee will begin at once. The Government will not take a position on the Eighth Amendment while that body is carrying out its work.
Independent Alliance TD Finian McGrath defended his position on the Eighth Amendment.
He said he accepted some of the criticism made during tonight’s Dáil debate, but said the process had started.
"If you look closely at what we have achieved, you will see clearly that we have pinned down a timeline and managed to retain the Independent Alliance core value of a free vote when the proposals come back to the Oireachtas committee and the Dáil", he said.
He said he wanted to bring people to his point of view, which was to repeal the Eighth, and get it over the line in a comprehensive manner.
Mr McGrath said the AAA-PBP bill pre-empted the work of the Citizen's Assembly.
He also told members they could win a referendum to repeal the Eighth, sooner than many think.
Give assembly time - Harris
Minister for Health Simon Harris has called on the Dáil to give the Citzen's Assembly time to consider the issue and report back to the Oireachtas.
Proposing the Government's amendment to the AAA-PBP bill, Minister Harris said he could not support previous proposed legislation to address fatal foetal abnormality for constitutional reasons, but said he wanted to change the situation as soon as possible.
He said if the bill was to pass tonight, it would do so both in a policy and legal vacuum.
"For these reasons I would ask that we give the Citizen's Assembly the time it needs to consider the issue and report back to the Oireachtas," he said.
Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson on health Billy Kelleher said the bill is about a simple deletion of Article 43.3, but that would leave a void in terms of legislative support to underpin it.
Mr Kelleher said the Citizens’ Assembly may not be the best roadmap towards dealing with the issue and there will have to consensus in parliament before it goes to the people.
Sinn Féin said the Government’s delay in dealing with the Eighth Amendment was unacceptable.
The party’s health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly said every year there were more tragedies and said that as a child she watched her mother cry over the death of Anne Lovett because she did not want that for her daughter.
Ann was a 15-years-old from Granard, in Co Longford who died giving birth beside a grotto on 31 January 1984.
Heated exchanges over 'left-wing views'
There were some heated scenes as Fine Gael Deputy Kate O'Connell suggested that the left-wing views of Deputy Coppinger would put voters off supporting a repeal of the Eighth amendment.
She said Deputy Coppinger had a "politically radical left-wing ideology" which would rarely appeal to voters on the centre right.
Ms O'Connell said she was ashamed of the nation's record when it comes to these issues.
However, she said she knew people from "her side of the political spectrum who would agree with repealing the Eighth but they were conflicted that by supporting the bill, they might be guilty of endorsing the other policies and activities of the extreme left."
She said these people did not align themselves with those who supported the false imprisonment of a former Tánaiste and refused a request from the AAA-PBP to withdraw the remark.
FG’s Kate O'Connell suggested that Ruth Coppinger's "left wing views" would put voters off supporting a repeal of the Eighth Amendment pic.twitter.com/KvuHTgeDTF
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 25, 2016
AAA/PBP’s Richard Boyd Barrett said Deputy O'Connell's "cheap political jibes"are beneath her.
He said if he heard the term "moderate political centre" again he would scream and claimed the "Catholic Taliban" have been responsible of years of shameful treatment of women.
He said the Eighth Amendment manifests the persistence of an abusive and oppressive regime.
Mr Boyd Barrett also recalled the people who gave a pledge before the last election that they would repeal the Eighth and said it is a "shameful disgrace" that it is they would oppose tonight's bill for tactical reasons.
Dáil votes against mid-term break
Separately, the Dáil has voted against plans to take a mid-term break next week.
Government Chief Whip Regina Doherty said she had originally suggested not taking the break, given the legislative workload, but was over ruled at the Dáil Business Committee.
Leas Ceann Comhairle Pat the Cope Gallagher called on members to decide on a return date, and this was agreed to be Wednesday 2 November at 2.30pm.
The Business Committee will meet tomorrow to discuss the cancellation of the Dáil's mid-term break next week.
The Dáil voted to overturn a decision of the committee to take the week off after it was questioned by Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin.
Nine of the ten members of the committee have expressed anger with Mr Martin as the committee had agreed to the break weeks ago.
The committee had also agreed that the time would be made up before Christmas.
Fianna Fáil said it had objected twice to the decision at committee meetings, however other members say it was agreed.
The vast majority of members also believe the committee has been undermined and Independents4Change TD Clare Daly is writing to it to raise her concerns and question her participation in it.
Independent Alliance TD Kevin Boxer Moran accused Fianna Fáil of returning to old politics while Labour's Brendan Ryan said it was farcical.
AAA-PBP’s Brid Smith accused Fianna Fáil of game playing while Fine Gael's Jim Daly said it made a mockery of the committee.
The Dáil Business Committee was set up under "new politics" to take the running of the Dáil schedule away from the Government.
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