Professor Veronica O'Keane:

I will start with the last question from Senator Walsh. I thank him for clarifying that I did say abortion may be a treatment for an unwanted pregnancy and not for suicidality. That may be, indeed, what I did say. I have certainly never said the other.

As regards women being advised to seek an abortion, I can assure the committee that it would be against the spirit of this legislation and would be outside what would be ethically accepted medically for us to do that. Speaking for myself, I am absolutely not going to advise any woman who comes to see me whether or not she should have an abortion. That is entirely her decision; she is making the application to have the abortion. I am not making the application and I am not prescribing the treatment. She is making the application. I am employed by the State to determine, in my professional opinion, whether or not that lady is eligible for an abortion, according to the law. I will not act outside the law but I will enact the law once it is passed, which other psychiatrists may choose not to do.

As regards the question about treatment, everybody who comes to us will be treated. Every single individual who comes into the psychiatric services will be treated with psychotherapy and perhaps daily or twice-daily visits from home treatment nurses. We have access to immediate psychology for them if it is so required. We can talk to their families and can intervene with family therapy. We can bring together teams of professional carers and can assemble them rapidly in response to emergencies like this.

The reason we want to have rapid access is simply to reduce the amount of distress in so far as we can. We will obviously provide a full range of psychiatric treatments and care for every single woman who presents to us, regardless of what we do within the limits of this legislation, which I think is just saying that somebody is or is not eligible. As Dr. Ferguson has clearly pointed out, there is a whole range of interventions and people are treated holistically. They are treated in response to the individual needs and vulnerabilities that they present to us with.

The point I am making is simply that we are not prescribing the abortion. We are not saying to the woman "We think you should have this treatment". The woman is coming to us as an autonomous citizen, asking for an abortion. We are requested by the legislation - that, hopefully, will be enacted - to see whether or not this woman lawfully meets those criteria. While we do one, it does not mean that we do not provide care.