Dr. Abigail Aiken:

I thank the Deputy and appreciate his opinion. I will say a couple of things in response to him.

Maternal mortality rates are very low in Ireland. The Deputy is right when he says Ireland has extremely good obstetric and maternity services. However, this presumes that people want to go through with pregnancies and end up giving birth to babies. That is great and there are excellent obstetric services here. The problem we are discussing involves people who are not in that position. The figures for them are not factored into the maternal mortality rate because they are able to go to England or use the Women on Web website. Ireland has a low maternal mortality rate which is great, but it really does not offer many options to those who are deciding what to do about their pregnancies.

One of the problems is that although there are many opinions in this room and Ireland on this issue, it is very difficult to legislate for opinions. Everyone has a different opinion. We came to present evidence to the committee in order that its members would learn more about the people who were relying on us to do something. It is not so much about our individual opinions but more about those who need help from the committee as it decides what to do. Although pregnancy is nice and joyful for many, it carries many physical and anatomical risks. It is an awful lot to expect a woman to do with her body, especially if it is something she does not want to do and would choose not to do. While pregnancy has been made very safe by the excellent obstetric services available in Ireland, it has to be recognised that it is not inherently very safe.