Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In order for the pro-choice people to make their case, they need to prove that having an abortion would be a dramatic improvement for the woman. We already know that it would be a bad thing for the baby, because the baby's life would end. There is clearly a huge amount of evidence around the world which shows that there is no real benefit to a woman's mental health from abortion, but there is evidence to show that it can have a detrimental effect on her mental health. People on the pro-choice side of the debate get very defensive in their questioning. They feel as though we cannot ask them to give us evidence on the mental health of a woman. Listening to the pro-choice campaigners, one would get the impression that the evidence shows that abortion is a good thing for the woman. It is not. Why are pro-choice people so defensive when it comes to the lack of evidence, and why do they not want to acknowledge that there is evidence to show that abortion does not benefit a woman's mental health?