Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in today. To follow on from some of Deputy Daly's questions on contraception, I hope the witnesses will correct me if I am wrong but I believe they are saying that greater access to contraception leads to fewer unwanted pregnancies. Can we sum it up like that? I have tabled a parliamentary question on today's Order Paper, No. 76, which basically asks the Minister for Health the cost to the Exchequer of contraceptives over the past ten years. I did not table the question just for the good of my health. I intend to propose that all women in Ireland be provided with free contraception, in the same way as proposed by Deputy Daly, to whom I have spoken about it. I worked in community pharmacy before and we had difficulty in accessing emergency contraception at the weekend and the Minister introduced a statutory instrument. Based on what the witnesses have said today and the work which has already been done by members of the committee, it is a no-brainer for us to call for universal access to contraceptives for women in Ireland.

Dr. Henchion referred to long-acting, reversible contraceptives. The cost of the Mirena coil allowed on the drug payment scheme is €144, providing coverage for five years, give or take, which is €2.40 per calendar month. That is not a massive sum of money. Dr. Henchion is talking about the outlay. I have come across people who have put off having the relevant procedure for financial reasons.

We are discussing socioeconomic reasons today but I want to move away from the economic element to the social one. One of my sisters had babies in that wonderful hospital in Cork. I was interested to see that domestic violence goes from one in eight in normal circumstances in Cork, or the regions served by Cork, to one in five when a woman is pregnant. My understanding is that economic factors have no influence on this. The committee needs to know that women are much more likely to suffer from domestic violence if they are pregnant. I should not say that is not only in Cork. However, the study was conducted in Cork and the surrounding region. What emerged from it conjures up the idea that women with crisis pregnancies may be trapped in relationships where they are forced to become parents against their will. Can Dr. Henchion tell me if there is any impediment to a woman's requesting a hysterectomy? If I decided tomorrow that my periods were too heavy or too difficult and I was low in iron and wrecked all the time, would I have to go to a court to ask that my reproductive organs be removed? Do I have to clear it with anyone other than my doctor?

Referring to something my Fine Gael colleague said, that we do not have any babies to adopt, are we moving into a situation reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale, whereby women with crisis pregnancies will be detained, forced to become parents and used as a source of supply of babies for childless people? That is up there with the most shocking thing I have heard today and I am hoping to God nobody forces me into that situation. Good luck to them if they do.

I want to correct something that was said by the good Senator Mullen. The Irish Independentdid not carry out the investigation into the doctors. I believe it was an undercover operation by anti-choice activists and the story was then given to Gemma O'Doherty of The Irish Independent.