Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State made an alarming admission on the issue of the obstetrician. Section 9 provides that if there is a real and substantial threat of suicide, the woman is entitled to a termination of her pregnancy. He is arguing that her right is qualified because an obstetrician who can make a foetal assessment but is not qualified to assess the threat to life of the mother as a result of suicide will have a say on her right to a termination. That is a shocking dilution of her right to protect her life or the right of the psychiatrists who assess the threat to her life to make the decision to allow a termination. We are getting a heavily qualified protection of the woman's life in such a way that her life is threatened by the qualification. It is disingenuous of the Minister of State to say the amendments do not deal with the issue of three doctors versus two doctors. They deal with the issue in so far as an obstetrician is required in addition to two psychiatrists or, as we propose, one psychiatrist and a GP. His insistence that an obstetrician should have an input into the process increases the number of doctors to three, places more hoops for the woman to jump through and endangers her life.

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