Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I will definitely read the studies of infanticide. It was amazing to compare the lives of women and what it was like to live in Ireland with an unwanted pregnancy before the 1967 Act with what it was like afterwards. Dr. McCarthy rightly referred in his presentation to the 1967 Act as the Irish abortion Act. Without it, we would never have had abortions in this country. It was illustrated that this was an island on which there was no access to abortion services. There is a limited number of abortions. There are variations on a theme across Europe. If one were in Poland and needed help, one could get on a train and travel to Germany or Austria. In Ireland, being an isolated island that was poor for a long time and which is now quite wealthy, we are still in the Dark Ages. I will definitely read the studies and thank Dr. McCarthy for pointing me in their direction.

Anecdotally, I believe there have been more ways than one to skin a cat in the history of this country. I was on a walking holiday in County Donegal learning the names of plants in the Irish language when I noted there was a lovely little plant that traditionally had been picked to make a tea in order to abort an unwanted pregnancy. This has been occurring for hundreds of years. The plant had a beautiful old Irish name and I brought home lots of it if anybody wants to have a cup of tea. I am letting anybody who needs help know about it.

I want to quiz Dr. McCarthy about the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act and the barrier of two psychiatrists and an obstetrician a woman has to get through if she needs an abortion because she is suicidal. Dr. McCarthy has mentioned that most psychiatrists, or some of them, had never done this kind of work. By that, I believe he meant they had not seen pregnant women with mental health issues. That is the professor's job and he has been doing this work in Holles Street with hundreds of women every year. The psychiatrists who are now doing this work under the Act would not have been used to it. Is the Act fit for purpose if practitioners such as psychiatrists are doing a job they never did before in very serious circumstances involving women whose lives are at risk? Obviously, if one does a job for a long time, one gets used to it, but if one is starting from a position in which one is not used to dealing with pregnant women with mental health issues who request an abortion because they feel suicidal, it is a different matter. Does Dr. McCarthy believe the Act is fit for purpose if the two psychiatrists whom a woman must see are not used to the work, given the stretched resources available in the country? Do the psychiatrists have a choice in doing that work? Are they forced to do it? Are they told on the day by the HSE that they must interview two women who are suicidal because they are employed by it? Can they opt out if they do not want to do that work?

Rather than going to two psychiatrists and an obstetrician and having to go through the hoops and over the jumps the ridiculous Act has forced on women with mental health issues, would it be easier for a woman to travel to Britain to have an abortion? Who, in the main, has to go through all of this? Is it girls? Is it women who are below the age of independence or women who are not capable of having financial independence? Is it very poor women? Is it refugee women, in particular, or women in direct provision accommodation who cannot leave the country? Does this reflect badly on the country? As well as penalising all women by not giving them a choice in respect of their own reproductive systems, we further penalise a cohort of women, particularly those who cannot leave the country because of their immigration or refugee status.