Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I think we are conflating two things here, that is, allowing 12 weeks for the use of the abortion pill with putting a limit on the request for an abortion because of rape and incest. I think it is a very sensitive issue and we need to be careful. If we put a 12-week limit on a request for an abortion in the case of rape or incest we may well be excluding a whole cohort of women. We are going through a period now where Women’s Aid have 16 days of drawing our attention to the question of domestic violence and we are seeing programmes on the television in the home. The Rape Crisis Centre gave a presentation recently in Dublin City Council. There is a whole cohort of women who live in abusive relationships who are scared to come forward to look after their own health while they are caught in that abuse and while they are caught in that trap. It may take more than 12 weeks for them to get out of that space. It could be 16 weeks or 18 weeks. If we limit access to 12 weeks then we are doing some of the most vulnerable, done down, badly treated women in society a huge disservice. That includes women who are victims of incest who get pregnant as a result. Again, we are looking at an extremely difficult situation to get out of both mentally, physically and financially and it may be that they are the ones who are in need of the late abortions more than anything else. We are conflating two things about the use of the abortion pill up to 12 weeks and the very serious nature of rape and incest.