Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has said he no longer agrees with the protection afforded to the unborn under the 8th Amendment to the Constitution.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Minister Varadkar said that his once held conservative views have now been altered by “life experience and growing up a bit”.
“What we have at the moment,” he said, “is this kind of absolute right to life where the unborn’s life is equal to that of a pregnant mother, I don’t agree with that. I think that is too restrictive.”
Arguing for a liberalising of the law the minister said: “The current line really is that a termination is possible if there’s a risk to the life of the mother, but what about the risk to [her] long-term health?
“I think there should be a mechanism where decisions like that are a matter for the woman and her doctor, not the law.”
The Minister also voiced support for abortion in cases of babies who will die at or shortly after birth.
Among those voices calling for a more permissive abortion law in Ireland, Minister Varadkar now joins those of Prof Fergal Malone, Master of Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital and Dr Rhona Mahony of the National Maternity Hospital Holles Street, both of whom offered personal interventions recently on the issue.
On calls to change current legislation, Minister Varadkar told The Irish Times that Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s promise to establish a constitutional convention within six months of the next general election towards debating a removal of the 8th Amendment ahead of a free vote in the Dáil was, in his opinion, the correct approach to the issue.
