Dr. Sam Coulter Smith:

I am not aware of any situation in which the lack of legal clarity prevented appropriate care. It has certainly not occurred in our hospital and I am unaware of it occurring anywhere else. I have never withheld appropriate treatment from a patient when it was required.

All appropriate mental health supports need to be made available for women who are at risk of suicide, have threatened to commit suicide or have suicidal ideation. The committee can ask the psychiatrists, but most people would agree that the termination of pregnancy is not a treatment in this regard.

I do not have the figures for the UK or Ireland on the number of people with suicidal ideation. The figure of one suicide in 500,000 pregnancies in the UK comes from its most recent triennial report.