Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----given that we intend to arrive at a consensus position across all parties and for the majority of the Irish people. We are elected to represent all people, not just those who are on one side or the other.

A number of months ago my position was clear in my head. It was very different from the position I hold today. This is probably as a direct result of making myself open and available to different points of view and arguments. I give a similar commitment to my colleagues. What I hope we will do when we arrive at the end of this series of debates and committee hearings is to provide clarity through legislation, regulation or both in order to provide the best medical care for women and children in this country. If every man, woman and child in this country were to genuinely put themselves in the shoes of either the mother of a child who has been raped or the friend of a woman who has a desperate crisis pregnancy, they would probably arrive at different conclusions than when they are just talking about some random person, which we seem to do quite a lot. My commitment in the course of the coming weeks is to be as open and honest as I can, to listen to all of the scenarios and to try to come up with the best mechanism, be it through legislation or regulations, to provide clarity to women who need medical intervention. The terminology we use is genuinely important. If one were to ask me today whether I would vote for legislation on abortion my gut instinct would be to say “No”. But if one were to ask me whether I would vote on legislation to provide for desperately needed medical intervention to save a woman’s life, while still respecting the life of the unborn, I would probably say “Yes”. I hope to arrive somewhere in the middle of that at the end of this series of debates.

I ask Deputy Clare Daly to withdraw the Bill and allow us time and space in the course of the coming weeks and months to reach a general consensus in the House by which we could all agree to provide the best medical care for women and children.

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