Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the whole issue and the philosophy behind it and when we get into the practical issues of the risk to the unborn, let us take the period between 24 and 37 weeks which is 13 weeks or a third of the time that a pregnancy lasts, give or take. My understanding is that during that period unnecessarily delivering the child early creates a high risk of disability. I have been told, for example, that one third of babies born between 24 and 26 weeks will suffer a brain haemorrhage. Of those babies that survive delivery at 25 weeks, 50% will be left with cerebral palsy and severe disablement, including mental retardation, blindness and hearing problems. I understand further-----