Professor Veronica O'Keane:

It is very regrettable that some women are hurt by abortion. The majority of the more than 150,000 women in Ireland who have had abortions are not hurt because they are not coming forward; nor is that the experience in other countries where abortion is available.

We cannot be said to be rushing this legislation, given that we have waited for it for 21 years.

It is patronising to assume that women are being pressurised into having abortions. This service is a service for women and I am paid by the good taxpayers of this country to facilitate it. I will not pressurise anyone. Women are not being pressurised but are making their own choices, against the odds, to travel abroad to have abortions.

On conscientious objectors, it is important to ask whether it will delay a woman's access to an abortion if her local psychiatrist is a conscientious objector. This is an incredibly important point and it is the reason I and others have proposed the establishment of a national panel. We could screen the panel for people who are prepared to co-operate in the full spirit of the law. If the local psychiatrist is on the panel, that is fine, and he or she can be requested to determine eligibility. However, if he or she is not on the panel, the woman would be poorly served by seeing somebody who did not want to comply with the legislation. For this reason, it is important to have a panel where it is stated that specific psychiatrists are happy to work within the legislative framework.

In response to Senator Healy Eames, she is correct - that is what I said and I will repeat it again. In situations where abortion is not available, unwanted pregnancy is a leading cause of suicide. The studies come from countries not just where abortion is not legally available but also from countries where women are too poor and abortion is not economically available to them. These countries include the Caribbean states and countries in sub-Saharan Africa. I would be very happy to supply the references to the Senator.