Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations this afternoon. In the course of recent days we heard from Dr. Anthony McCarthy, who is the head of the School of Psychiatry and is a perinatal psychiatrist who works in that field extensively, being only one of three in the country. He stated that it is true that abortion is not a treatment for suicide but he added that counselling and anti-antidepressants are not treatments either and that there is no treatment for suicide. He argued that we have to try to prevent suicide by looking at the reasons for suicide. I put it to the witnesses that we all advocate that abortion is not a treatment for suicide, but it is the choice of the woman and it is the doctors who certify the woman to be suicidal. These are trained medical psychiatrists who, day in, day out and week in, week out deal with risk and put people on suicide watch. Are we now to believe that they are incapable of ascertaining whether a woman is suicidal? We all agree that abortion is not a treatment for suicide. It is the woman's right to choose.