John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

While we are dealing with choice, we are also dealing with conditions that are incompatible with life. The best thing to do in the one minute available to me is to tell the Taoiseach a story of a woman I met who is too traumatised to be here today with all of the women present. She has told me that she went through with the birth having been recommended not to do so because the foetus was so badly damaged and it might have a traumatic effect on her. The young baby lived for approximately 25 seconds. That was three years ago and the woman concerned is deeply traumatised. She is unable to have sexual relations with her husband three years on. She is ill and wakes up with nightmares almost every night because of what she saw. That is not compassion. A total of 87% of the people said in an opinion poll that women should have the choice if they were told the foetus was incompatible with life. Does the Taoiseach not accept that by forcing these women to go through with this, we are damaging their lives and the lives of their husbands, partners and families forever? Some 87% of the people would be behind the Taoiseach, but with the deepest of respect to him - I informed him that I would raise this issue today - the women concerned do not need compassion. They have their partners, families and friends and the medical profession. They need help. Last June they met the Minister for Health who I am told was deeply moved and promised he would do something. I do not know what that something is, but those were his words. I again ask the Taoiseach and every other Member to look up at these women and their husbands and tell them they will not allow another 1,500 women to suffer next year in the way many of them have suffered.

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