Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In fairness, the counsellors did talk about telling lies. That is totally wrong. Most of the witness's statement today was about the health care of the woman. It is wrong for counsellors working for the Irish Family Planning Association to tell people to do this. I spoke last week about Marie Stopes paying bonuses to staff members to encourage people to have abortions. That is totally wrong.

The witness has talked about how a woman who travelled abroad for an abortion will not be able to bring her medical history with her. Medical history is very important so that a doctor can treat a woman properly. If she has any complications or problems, he knows exactly what he can do because he has the records. If women who went to Irish Family Planning Association clinics followed the advice they got there and told doctors they had a miscarriage instead of an abortion it would mean giving false medical history and if any complications cropped up, doctors would not be able to treat them properly because they would not be aware they had had an abortion. Given that medical history is very important, why were counsellors in Irish Family Planning Association clinics telling women they could give false information to their doctors. How can the organisation tell us women's health is very important? I am very disappointed. People do not just make these things up. People went in looking for advice from the services. The Irish Family Planning Association is the only agency that was invited in here and it has told people to tell lies and put women's health at risk.