Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael)
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I have reservations. I am afraid that if we go the way we are going, abortion will be available on demand. I would not like people to use it as a contraceptive and I would not like to think that it would facilitate a person who discovered from a scan that baby was a boy, but they wanted a girl, or vice versa. That is my biggest fear of all. I am conscious of it and I have set out my reservations. The last thing I want to happen in this country is for abortion to be available on demand. In America, over 55 million abortions have been carried out. As I said in my statement, there are 100,000 people alive in Ireland today because of the eighth amendment. I have come here and I am trying to be honest in expressing my opinion. While I accept the witnesses' opinions, I am very disappointed. We had a meeting here beforehand to discuss whether we will have a referendum now or in May or June. The bottom line is that nothing should be done until everything is finalised. I am here, I am open-minded and I have expressed my concerns. However, I am a little bit afraid that things have been done before we have even had a chance to speak up. I am really worried that we are going to make a major mistake and have abortion on demand in this country.