Dr. Rhona Mahony:

Very briefly, in regard to the UK, the Senator is right. There are situations where termination of pregnancy in the UK is a criminal offence. In fact, that is currently the big debate in the UK and, as I said in my position statement, the council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have voted strongly in favour of supporting the removal of criminal sanctions associated with abortion in the UK. They say that they believe the procedure should be subject to regulatory and professional standards in line with other medical procedures but not criminal sanction.

As for helping society distinguish between rogue and bad doctors and there being no case law of doctors being arrested and put in prison, the point is that the law is there and we must, and will, abide by the law. In my practice I will abide by the law but to my mind the law is unclear in regard to determining when a woman is sick enough to qualify for the substantial risk to her life provision. It is not enough to merely say that in the past couple of years no doctor has been prosecuted. Doctors have been prosecuted in Northern Ireland, but the law remains as it is and that is the law under which we practice medicine today.