http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faZj8L5pqGw&feature=youtu.be

This , etc.

Independent TD Clare Daly at the Savita rally this evening.

All morning I’ve been contacted by people from France, from America and from towns and villages around this country to say that while they can’t be here with us physically they are here with us in spirit. 

This has got to be the worst and best of days for Ireland.  Who would have thought when two months ago we marched in this very spot to demand the right to choice, who would have thought then that we would be back here today, that so soon, the event we all hoped would never happen, actually tragically did. That a vibrant, healthy, wonderful young woman starting family life has needlessly died, and died because of the failure of successive governments to deal with this issue, in fact death by political cowardice and shame on them.

But similarly, who would have thought that so many people would turn out in such magnificent numbers to first and foremost stand and mourn and express solidarity with Savita and her family, but on the other hand, not just that, because she deserves more than that, to deliver a clear and unambiguous message – No More.

Twenty years ago, a social movement forced the Supreme Court to act; twenty years on, this is another social movement sparked by another tragic event, but this isn’t 20 years ago, and we’re not going back to wait for a third  tragedy, we’re not waiting twenty years, we’re not waiting 10 years and we’re not waiting one year, we want action on these issues now.

Earlier in the year when myself, Mick Wallace and Joan Collins moved legislation supported by the United Left Alliance to legislate for X, we were told that legislation wasn’t necessary, to wait for the Expert Group. 

Now clearly it was necessary, because Savita wasn’t even pregnant then, and now she’s dead. But also, we have the Expert Group.  And what is the response from our government – Enda says it’s not going to be rushed, this man has some definition of being rushed.

This political pygmy sat in the Dail for over 30 years, while one 150,000  Irish women were exported out of here, for many many reasons. They travelled for many different reasons, none of them easy, all of them valid, and the only reason they had to travel was to maintain the hypocrisy that there are no Irish abortions. Of course there are, they just don’t happen here, and that’s not good enough. 

Against a background of increased austerity and the less and less revenue that people have, there is no doubt that the option of the boat and the plane is not going to be available for many women.  Our lives and our health are being jeopardised by further waiting.  And I have to say that it’s bad enough that Fine Gael take this stand, but for the Labour party to stay in government while this issue is unresolved is unsustainable to my mind.  Governments have been brought down over VAT on children’s shoes, surely women’s lives are more important than that.

And the last couple of points I’ll make is that we’re here to let it be known, that if this government doesn’t act within the next week, we will move to reintroduce our bill as an interim measure to protect women’s lives and the first step to dealing with broader issues.  When we do this will you be there to demand that this time they act on it, because that’s what we need and, let’s be honest, it’s clear that that’s not enough, that the X case legislation is not enough, that women are dying before we get treatment, before they get assistance in their health, but to get to the next stage, we have to remove the 8th Amendment before all other issues can be addressed, and we will be going on to that challenge after this one.

The last point I want to make is that this morning I received an email from a 67-year-old man and he said that he had heard this story and debate so many times over the decades, the time has come to cut through the knots that we’ve been tied up in by people who are as slippery as eels as cold as stone.  He went on to say, these self-appointed guardians of the threshold have ruled the roost for so long they think they own the perch.  The time’s up, lads, get off your perch because people won’t stand for it any longer. 

You have done a wonderful thing here today, that out of this terrible tragedy, we may build a better future.  Don’t let them off the hook, don’t come back and wait until the next tragedy.  The pressure has to be kept up, only people power will deliver on this issue, so don’t just go home, come back again in the next week or two  for Savita, for my daughter, your sister, your mother, your wife, your friend, NEVER AGAIN.

Meanwhile, Via Blathnaid Healy, a six-year-old girl makes her voice heard:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l_DMX4_aTI

Mmmf.