Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 25 October 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution

Risks to Mental Health of Pregnant Women: Professor Veronica O'Keane

1:30 pm

Professor Veronica O'Keane:

A crisis pregnancy is an unplanned pregnancy, as such. A crisis pregnancy can evolve into a wanted pregnancy, where a pregnancy was not timed correctly but it is ultimately wanted, but it can develop into an unwanted pregnancy, where the woman does not want to be pregnant - it was not planned, it was a crisis and it progressed to being unwanted. That would differ from a crisis pregnancy, which is a more ambivalent state. As I said, crisis pregnancies can go on to become wanted pregnancies, and that is not an issue as obviously we do not have a problem. Is that okay?