I said yesterday morning that my advice from the Attorney General was to the effect that the morning after pill was fully compatible with Article 40.3.3º of the Constitution and did not in any way infringe on the personal right to life of the unborn accorded by the Article. The Government's strong and consistent legal advice is that the constitutional position of the morning after pill is not open to doubt that it is fully compatible with Article 40.3.3º of the Constitution. The Irish Medicines Board has similar but independent strong legal advice. The acceptance or rejection of the referendum proposal will not change its constitutional law status. There is, therefore, no question of a current or future infringement of the civil law.
It is the statutory issue concerning the criminal law, emergency contraception, which the Government is addressing. As Members will be aware, the criminal law on abortion in Ireland can be found in the Offences Against the Person Act, 1861. The matter is being challenged in another jurisdiction. Section 6 of the envisaged Protection of Human Life in Pregnancy Act repeals sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act, 1861. This new Act replaces those sections with a definition of abortion which will prevent any case being made that the morning after pill will be termed an abortifacient or subject to criminal sanction.
The fact that there is currently no civil or constitutional law in relation to the morning after pill will not be altered by the acceptance of the proposal in the forthcoming referendum. There has been some doubt as regards criminal law, but it has been acknowledged that the new law will ensure the use of the morning after pill will no longer come within the scope of criminal law. It is entirely correct, therefore, to say the amendment will clarify the legal status of the morning after pill; that is the view of a number of eminent people.
I wish to mention another matter while I have the opportunity. It was said the other day in sensationalist reports that women haemorrhaging as a result of miscarriage would not receive medical care. I welcome the statement of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists, which supports the Government's approach to the twenty-fifth amendment of the Constitution and accompanying legislation.