Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is the only recommendation, as far as I can see, governing the possibility of subtracting from the grounds for abortion that are currently legal under the law of the country. It is fair to say that there was substantial evidence before the health committee in 2013, including from suicide prevention experts who recommended against suicide as a grounds. There have been substantial and evidence-based claims that this is not an evidence-based ground for abortion. Certainly, there was evidence from psychiatric experts before this committee which appears to distance the majority of the psychiatric medical profession from this whole business of providing for abortion on the grounds of a threat of suicide.

While I accept that the committee's apparent will to see abortion legalised as a matter of right on demand will make the issue moot anyway, I support Deputy Mattie McGrath's proposal that we reject this use of suicide as a ground.

I should note in passing as well that a small, but significant, number of children have died as a result of this invocation of a threat to life. It does not make sense in terms of evidence-based medicine. It never did. It certainly is a major injustice to the children involved.

It certainly does not make sense in terms of suicide prevention. If one thinks of any other situation where a threat of suicide would lead to a particular fulfilment of a demand, it is easy to see why this was bad law to begin with.