Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

We also have an amendment. I feel somewhat conflicted because this is an important issue and any time it is raised we receive this answer about legal advice to which we are not privy. I know the Minister is giving us a brief outline but it is still unclear. The gist of what he said was that if we insert "pregnant person" it could leave open the potential for somebody to take a legal challenge against other laws which do not take the same approach. I am not a legal person but I find that hard to believe and I do not get it. The scenario that Deputy Donnelly and I outlined is more likely, where somebody who has legally transitioned to being a trans man, but who could become pregnant, could go to his doctor and have that experience. The Minister is in a Government that says it will do these things for trans people, but surely with all the legal brains that we have something could have been done. The Minister says some provision will be made in the explanatory memo and the clinical guidelines.