The Bill proposes to amend the law relating to the sale, advertisement and availability of contraceptives in the country. The Long Title to the Bill is:
An Act to facilitate family planning, to provide for the control of the importation, sale and manufacture of contraceptives, to repeal section 17 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1935, to amend the Censorship of Publications Acts, 1929 to 1967, to extend section 59 of the Health Act, 1970 and to provide for other matters connected with the aforesaid matters.
This Bill is an entirely new proposal for such change in the law. It has followed some aspects of the Government Bill to amend the law in relation to family planning, but it is substantially different from either the earlier Bill introduced by the sponsors of this Bill—Senator John Horgan, Senator Trevor West and myself—The Family Planning Bill, 1973, and the Government Bill which was laid before the Dáil during the past year.
I believe that Senators must be well aware of the necessity for legislation of this sort. It is a social necessity for the people to have access to information about family planning and for the availability of contraceptives to be regarded as a matter of normal, civil rights for citizens, a right which the law will safeguard and promote despite the different views on the subject of various religious groups.
Senators will be aware from earlier discussion that, following the Supreme Court judgment in the McGee case, it is now legal to import any quantity of contraceptives but it is still not possible to buy or to acquire responsible literature about family planning. I am sure that Senators will feel that this is an intolerable situation which will give rise to increasing social tension and health hazards. Senators are aware of the substantial public interest in this question and of the opinion polls which have shown very definitely that there is a substantial majority in favour of change in the law relating to family planning.
Senators should remember that this is the First Stage of the Bill. They have already got the text of the Bill, which I circulated to every Senator and also to the Front Bench members of the three political parties. Senators, therefore, know what is in the Bill. The public at large do not know and will not know unless this Stage of the Bill is passed. Therefore my appeal to my fellow Senators is a very basic one. Please do not censure the people of Ireland from examining this serious and responsible attempt to change the law relating to family planning. Let the Bill pass its First Stage, let it be published and considered not just by the Members of this House but by the public at large, by those with special interests, such as members of the medical profession, by various interested groups, by the women of Ireland, by our fellow citizens. I say this very seriously because it would be a terrible injustice if we censored this Bill today, killed it before it had any life at all, before it had been debated as a matter of public interest and public concern.
I should like to summarise very briefly the proposals of this Bill which Senators have had before them for some weeks.