Rónán Mullen (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Dr. Lohr has been invited here although her group performs abortions including late-term abortions without time limit, up to birth in some cases. She does not believe and she advocates for a scenario where unborn babies have no right to life. One thing that has not been put on the record is that BPAS received a scathing health and safety reprimand from the British Care Quality Commission after 11 serious incidents in a 15-month period involving women being transferred for emergency medical care in hospitals after undergoing abortions in BPAS clinics. Since Dr. Lohr is coming here to advise us on our laws and on what she regards as best practice, it is necessary that this serious reprimand be flagged. Is that light in which we should view Dr. Lohr's supportive attitude to the idea that abortion should be available outside hospitals and at home, as the World Health Organization pushes for?

She quotes supportively a claim by the Guttmacher Institute, which she says is respected although I believe complaints were made about it coming before the Citizens' Assembly; it does advocate for abortion. Its claim, which is strange to many, is that the rate of abortions in countries with highly restrictive abortion laws is comparable with those with more liberal frameworks. She put the rate in Britain as 16 per 1,000 women. Does that include medical abortions?