Dr. Catherine Conlon:

People we spoke to from Ireland who were seeking abortion care for foetal diagnosis reasons were faced with a diagnosis of a severe life-limiting anomaly. They were very conscious they were going to give birth to a child with that diagnosis in the context of a State that has very limited social and healthcare supports for families raising children. At the time we were interviewing people for the study, there had just been a “Prime Time” documentary about the pressures parents are under. The parents interviewed for “Prime Time” said that they were feeling suicidal because of the strains and pressures of them raising children who had severe anomalies at birth. The people we spoke to were making their decision and being faced with a diagnosis of that order, considering their capacity to raise a child, the quality of life that child would have and their capacity to continue to care for the children they already had. To have this blunt instrument in the Act that said a certainty of a clinically determined 28 days did not in any way, according to the women we spoke to, meet their need for termination in the face of a severe foetal anomaly diagnosis.