Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister has said on numerous occasions - I agree with him - that the Bill is about providing clarity for women and medical practitioners. I think he said last evening that we should use the terminology of the Constitution, the X case and the expert report. In relation to the tests to be applied, the report of the expert group on the judgment in the X case, at page 30, paragraph 6.2, reads:

The Supreme Court in the X case held that the correct test was that a termination of pregnancy was permissible if it was established as a matter of probability that:1) there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother; and
2) this risk can only be averted by termination of her pregnancy. It is not necessary for medical practitioners to be of the opinion that the risk to the woman's life is inevitable or immediate.

In no part of the section or the Bill is that provision included. It should be included. I agree with Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett's position. It is important to provide clarity for women and medical practitioners that that part of the test be included in the legislation.