Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 8 November 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution

Risks to Mental Health: Dr. Anthony McCarthy, National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street

1:30 pm

Dr. Anthony McCarthy:

How could it be a good thing? I see women who come back afterwards as well, and they have a level of distress. The committee has heard the stories and I do not need to repeat them. How could any human being react listening to women describing taking the boat rather than the plane and bringing the foetus in a bag? I will sometimes have seen them before the termination. They will show love for the foetus and have a photograph of it. It is a baby they loved but this was the only way for them to deal with the matter. They are hurt, outraged or upset that they had to go to the UK.