Michael Harty (Clare, Independent)
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To follow on from my question, I am disturbed to think the UN does not take the rights of an unborn child into account on this issue. The passage of a child from its mother's womb to the outside world is a very short one but it seems to be jumping a huge gap in respect of its rights. We are, and will be, discussing abortion in our Parliament over the next number of months. In fact there is a Bill before the House tomorrow on attempting to decriminalise women who have had an abortion. There was a lot of sympathy in the debate last night on how a woman who had procured an abortion in Ireland could be subject to a 14-year jail sentence and the purpose of the Bill debated last night is to reduce that to a small monetary fine because the Constitution does not allow complete decriminalisation of somebody who procures an abortion. Certainly, the balancing of the right of an unborn child and giving it no balance whatsoever in respect of the mother and the mother having the right to control her own body without consulting the silent foetus seems difficult to conceive, if that is not the wrong word. I find that difficult myself. Does the UN have a difficulty like that?