Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a difference between being criminalised and being prosecuted. There is a difference between being prosecuted and being convicted. There is a difference between being convicted and being punished. I make all of those points because I do not know if Deputy Kelleher was referring to all in the room when he said we all know what we want. I want to make it clear that I oppose this agenda to decriminalise abortion. The reason I do so is not because I ever want to see any woman targeted by the law but because the law exists not just to punish its breaches. It exists also to deter people from doing something that is harmful to themselves and others. What people seem to be saying here is, in the context where the committee is proposing to look for abortion effectively on demand - I do not need to say effectively but abortion on demand up to 12 weeks - is that any doctor who does it outside of a licensed clinical setting would be prosecuted. However, it seems to be the view that there would be no criminal sanction for any woman who would ever try at any stage of pregnancy, or no breach of the criminal law I should say. Even in Britain, which effectively has abortion on demand and late-term abortion on demand, abortion remains a criminal offence.

It is not prosecuted where some of the A, B, C, D and E grounds are met. This would be a charter for rogue doctors. This turns a blind eye to the fact that those who procure abortions for themselves end the life of an innocent child and, in many cases, cause hurt or potential hurt to themselves.

People seem to think that this is the only way in which one can prevent women from being fearful about going for medical care - I have heard this view canvassed - if they have procured an abortion pill and taken it. However, it is possible to have laws in this country which guarantee that a person who seeks medical assistance will not be criminalised by reason of any offence which the person discloses to have committed in the course of seeking that medical care and it would be bad public policy to decriminalise abortion. What I am saying to some degree makes no sense in the context of a committee that wants abortion but I draw the committee's attention to the British situation where it remains a criminal offence. If one wants to even maintain the fig leaf of a desire to keep abortions to as few as possible, one certainly does not start by decriminalising it.