Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Following that last comment, could the legal representatives opposite clarify the following? I heard one of them state that risk of suicide was a ground in the English Act. I looked again at the 1967 Abortion Act and, as they all will be aware, of course, risk of suicide does not require to be proven. The test is a much lower test of injury to physical or mental health of the woman. There is no comparison between the English provision and the Irish law, as it currently is in terms of the Constitution and the Attorney General v. X and Others test. The Attorney General v. X and Others test is a much higher standard, of real and substantial risk to the life of the woman.

Following from that, there is another correction on which I seek clarification from them. Some of them spoke about a change of culture by legislation. How can it be a change of culture when the legislation we are talking about is legislation to implement existing law in terms of the Constitution and the Supreme Court decision in Attorney General v. X and others?

Third, in terms of the criminal law and the 1861 Act, doctors have testified, as those present all have heard, that they have a fear of being prosecuted. The only reason there have been no prosecutions over recent decades is because abortion is legal in England and every year 4,000 women are travelling to England. Earlier in the week we heard evidence from the doctors that research shows that, for example, infanticide and rape prosecutions increased in Ireland during the Second World War when it was difficult to travel, and we have seen, as women have been able to travel to England in such numbers, that prosecutions have not occurred.

I should say that I am probably the only person here who has been threatened with jail, which was in 1989 for giving out information on abortion. I am glad to say the law has moved on-----