Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be as quick as possible in order to prevent any more precariousness in the room. I was interested by Professor Pajkrt's submission on reasons for abortion. Women make difficult decisions about whether to have abortions. I was interested in the list of reasons the witness provided, such as financial considerations, housing, age, whether one's family is complete, broken or fragile relationships and the lack of possibilities regarding raising a child. In the committee's discussions on the future of abortion rights in this country, we classified such reasons as being socioeconomic in nature. I was very interested that Professor Pajkrt did not list some of the issues that have caused most discussion in this country, such as rape, incest, fatal foetal abnormality, a risk to the life or health of a woman or suicidal ideation. As an obstetrician, does Professor Pajkrt consider the latter risks to almost automatically be grounds for an abortion? Is it true to say that in the case of a woman who said she had been raped and wanted an abortion, a young girl who became pregnant as a result of incest in a family or a woman presenting with a fatal foetal abnormality, there would be no discussion of whether an abortion is warranted? Can Professor Pajkrt say how one measures up against the other? Having listened to all the experts who have come before the committee, some of whom have been fantastic, the evidence has been that women mainly choose to terminate a pregnancy for socioeconomic reasons and that reasons such as those relating to rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality are thankfully the exception. That is also borne out in my experience. Therefore, if a society is to liberalise the availability of abortion and give women choice in that regard, socioeconomic reasons for termination must be strongly considered.