Rónán Mullen (Independent)
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I just want to put that on the record. I do not believe I have ever done it.

To me, this is a very distressing proposal. Motion 18 does not state "in view of the difficulties with regulating the online purchase of abortion pills". The substance is "because it is difficult to legislate for termination of pregnancy for reasons of rape or incest". I get why many good people are conflicted about those cases. They are very heart-rending and difficult but there is something reminiscent of the judgment of Solomon about proposing that, since they are so complex to deal with, we should therefore propose that a much wider category of unborn children may be legally killed. If one examines the law in Britain, one notes that the vast majority of Britain's staggering number of abortions per year, which is nearly 200,000, take place in the period up to 12 weeks, as I understand it.

At meetings of this committee, we never examined the size of an unborn child at 12 weeks, or just under. As far as I know, we never looked at any images of an abortion. I believe Deputy Mattie McGrath invited people to inform themselves at some level but the committee did not do so. I do not even know whether the people proposing this could tell us or discuss in detail the size or developmental stage of the little creature whose legal right to exist is proposed to be dismissed here. There is no difference between a surgical abortion and a medical abortion considering the impact on the unborn baby. We have what I would regard as a really distressing proposal. It is harder to imagine a better example of how politicians can lose sight of the humanity of unborn children through this whole process. As I have said before, if one asks people the situations in which one can take away the right of unborn children, the answer seems to be, "more and more, actually."

This is a very disturbing proposal. It is for abortion on demand. Having no restriction as to reason effectively means that if a person asks for an abortion, she gets it. I am not clear from the wording whether it is intended that the general practitioner would prescribe the pills or whether they would have to be taken in a general practitioner's surgery but I do know there is no child under 12 weeks in the womb who would have the right to the protection of the law if the Irish people were to take this on board. It is a staggering proposal and I urge people to reconsider it.