Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the doctors who have come before the committee today. I have been present on Friday and today. We are all agreed that what we want – whether professionally qualified or non-qualified citizens – is a good, ethical society, one that respects life. In essence, that is what we are here for.

This is not a debate in a vacuum. It is a debate about realities. The witnesses have told us of their experience. The gaping hole in the hearings, both the earlier ones in January and the ones today, are the women and girls who have had the experience. Perhaps they have been patients of the witnesses. They requested to be present to give their testimony and their offer was declined. By any measure, that is essentially wrong.

I am afraid that we might be rushing because of the approach to the issue. The professionals are reacting. Even on Friday, Dr. Boylan, one of the obstetricians and gynaecologists, said life is messy. Today, again, we hear that life is tough and life is messy, which it is. That is why care, compassion and supports are necessary, and all those things that eliminate the fear because no poor girl or woman who has had the unhappy experience of an abortion wants the experience. They have been motivated by fear, coercion or oppression. Even if it is imagined, the way to address the situation and eliminate the crisis is to get rid of what caused the fear. Dr. John Monaghan from Portiuncula Hospital pointed out on Friday that when he was working in the English midlands in the Liverpool area as a trainee obstetrician and gynaecologist, the number of medically-qualified people going into the profession started to decline seriously to 50% levels because of the ethical considerations of what was happening in the United Kingdom in the context of delivering medical care. Doctors undertake to do no harm. The five women who were declined an invitation to the committee were harmed and they said so.