Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

It appears to many people, and not just to, let us say, activists on either side of the debate, that at the heart of this there is a chasm of evidence missing from this discussion. Obviously, the abortion service is used by a significant section of service users, up to 16%, and we can argue back and forth on the percentage, but there are also hundreds of women who have had adverse incidents as a result of experiencing abortions in this country who are suing the State who have never been spoken to either. There are also mothers who had fully healthy children who were aborted under the fatal foetal abnormality element of the legislation who again were never spoken to for the review. It feels that there is an absence of so many people who would have added rich information to the review, and not necessarily from an ideological position. I know mothers who went through with the first abortion meeting and would have loved to have spoken to the witnesses.