Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like a number of speakers, I am conscious this Bill is about the preservation of maternal life and we are addressing ourselves to the heads of the Bill. However, Dr. Coulter-Smith's testimony has come up again and again with regard to suicidality. Looking at his written contribution, he says his overriding concern includes self-destruction and termination of pregnancy. He is concerned about the lack of evidence. In spite of Senator Crown's question, I am at a loss as to his answer. If no evidence exists, surely none of his psychiatric colleagues would prescribe a termination of a pregnancy in these circumstances, no more than he would prescribe the termination of a pregnancy on the grounds of heart failure, for the sake of argument. I am at a loss to see how this is relevant.

Dr. Coulter-Smith mentioned that the inclusion of suicidality would lead to an increased demand for termination services. He mentions the difficulty we have with resources in the Irish State but we do not know how many of the 5,000 women who travel abroad do so because they are suffering from mental health issues. Nor do we know whether part of our excellent record in Ireland is due to the fact that women over 45 years of age travel abroad because they believe their lives may be at risk and choose to vote with their feet. We suffer from a lack of evidence. The 5,000 women who travel out of this country may be dismayed to have it suggested that a lack of resources should be a reason they should not have a legitimate answer to their medical and mental problems in this country.