Lucinda Creighton has ruled herself out of being involved in next year’s referendum on the Eighth Amendment.
The former Fine Gael minister, who left the party in 2013 in protest over plans to legalise terminations for suicidal women, said that she would not be campaigning to protect Ireland’s constitutional ban on abortion.
A vote to liberalise the country’s approach to abortion, including potential legalisation, is being considered by the Oireachtas. Leo Varadkar has already indicated that there will be a referendum next year while Simon Harris, the health minister, has called for a vote before next summer.
Ms Creighton, who works at a European affairs consultancy, said that she would no longer be involved in domestic politics.
“I have no plans to be involved in any referendum in Ireland in the near future, I am very busy with business and with my work commitments and I am travelling every week. So I don’t have any intention of getting involved,” Ms Creighton said at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Donegal, yesterday. “I am sure plenty of people will emerge when there is a referendum but there is no referendum at the moment.”
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The state’s human rights watchdog has said that Ireland’s abortion laws must be reformed to stop women being denied their human rights. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission told the United Nations that the constitutional ban on abortion disproportionately affected migrants and poorer women. In its submission to the committee against torture, the commission raised concerns that suicidal women who were turned down for terminations could not easily have the decision reviewed.
Last month The Times reported that two suicidal women who were at a substantial risk of killing themselves if their pregnancies continued were initially refused abortions. Under a law passed in 2013, suicidal women must convince three medical experts before they can access a termination.
The commission said that it endorsed the findings of two UN committees which said that Ireland had breached the human rights of two women who were forced to travel in order to terminate pregnancies diagnosed with fatal foetal abnormalities. The UN ruled that Amanda Mellet and Siobhán Whelan had both been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment because they could not access a legal termination in Ireland.
“The commission has expressed concern that current barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health impede a woman’s right to bodily autonomy and have a disproportionate impact on women who face difficulties in travelling to seek a termination of pregnancy,” the commission said in its submission. It also called for better collection of data on sexual violence. Ireland has not researched the extent of rape and sexual assault since a report in 2002.
Mr Varadkar has suggested that a second Sexual Assault and Violence in Ireland study would not be carried out because funding may be better spent on frontline services. The Rape Crisis Network Ireland said that this was offensive because sexual violence services should not be forced to compete for funding. It said that services for victims of female genital mutilation were solely based in Dublin and better support should be offered to women elsewhere.