Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy was totally wrong. If people had studied the submissions made at the special committee they would have seen that. The public have acknowledged that. That is what they voted on, namely, a recognition that women did not have abortions for the fun of it. As they saw it, a parental, maternal bond, unique to women was being violated.

They were concerned about it and they expressed that again and again. They were traumatised by it but they found themselves in a situation where they were between a rock and a hard place and they felt that it was the only way they could go.

Reference has also been made to socio-economic reasons for having an abortion. It was already stated that it was discussed at length at that particular time that we were eliminating that particular ground for seeking to have a termination of a pregnancy, so why is it being raised again? That leads me to believe without any doubt that the people who concocted this new section were not familiar with what the committee had done, what the people had voted for, or the legislation in general in this country and were more familiar with the legislation that is effective in other countries such as the US and the UK. We are well capable of governing our own State in every way and we should be left to do that, as we have always done and will do.

I cannot understand why there should be so much concern about a lack of trust in women. Those who predicted the floodgates opening in 2014 said that thousands of women would seek abortions but the average number is between 23 and 24 on an annual basis, and only for reasons that were legitimate and within the law. I dismiss any other speculation that has been put into the ether. This section has nothing to do with the Bill or what the people voted on and is pure surmise as to what might happen in other jurisdictions but has nothing to do with the legislation in this country, incidentally the heads of which were published before the people made their decision. This section was not.