Both the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil leaders refused to back the Constitutional protection for unborn children during the first televised debate of the general election campaign.
Questioned on their own stance and their parties’ stances on the current debate around repealing the 8th Amendment in response to life-limiting foetal abnormalities, Taoiseach Enda Kenny reiterated his belief that the best way forward on the issue is to “depoliticise” it and to “to have a citizens’ assembly so that we can tease it out fully…so that we can get to a point where if we consider an adjustment to the 8th Amendment, or inserting something or taking something out, we do so with the values of our society which has changed over the last number of years”.
Asked what he would say to a woman today seeking a termination based on the grounds that her baby would die at or soon after birth and is therefore considering travelling to Britain for an abortion, Mr Kenny fell back on a previous statement offered when interviewed previously on RTÉ Radio, saying it “is entirely appropriate that we consider the stories of the brave women who have come forward to tell of the profound experience and trauma that this means”.
For his part, the Fianna Fáil leader, Micheal Martin said that while “we are not promoting a repeal of the 8th Amendment” during the election campaign, there was “freedom of conscience in the parliamentary party”.
On the specific issue, he said, “it needs very considered thinking in terms of the moral, ethical and legal questions” and he, like Mr Kenny, suggested a convention to feed into Oireachtas committees before further steps are taken. On the same theoretical question of a woman seeking an abortion following a life-limiting diagnosis for her foetus, Mr Martin said it is “up to each family to make that decision within the parameters of the law”.
Also in studio for the televised debate were Labour Party leader Joan Burton and Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, both of whom gave commitments to pursuing the repeal of the 8th Amendment.
