Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein)
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I thank Professor McCarthy for his presentation. I found it fascinating when I read it yesterday. I was particularly struck by the history of infanticide in our country. I was not aware of it and it is another indicator of what a dark place this country was for women for so long. It is to be hoped we are involved in a process which will move us all to a better place. I thank him for that.

I am tempted to repeat one line from his presentation, namely, "We cannot wish abortion away". Some of us may need to think about that. He said that fears about the enactment of the 2013 Act would lead to significant numbers of pregnant women trying to fool clinicians into granting abortions by threatening suicide have not been borne out in real life and were never going to be. Could he speak a little more about that, as a professional in the area?