Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to refer to amendment No. 18, which seeks to delete "which has regard to the need to preserve unborn human life as far as practicable” and substitute “which has regard to the need to preserve unborn human life as far as practicable and with due regard to the right to life of the woman". I sat through the hearings and heard all the contributions with my own ears; there were no problems with the microphones. All the contributors, each of whom is eminent in his or her field, be it gynaecology or psychiatry, told us that in spite of the 1851 Act and everything else, it has always been their motivation, under Hippocratic oath or otherwise, to protect the life of the mother and human life. How can we play around with the words “which has regard to the need to preserve unborn human life as far as practicable"? Unborn life is unborn life and should be regarded as such. We cannot play around with words and make it less palatable or more palatable to decide that we should have terminations or not.

While it is fine to stand up here and criticise people for putting up billboards, holding marches and issuing communications – that is our job and we are here every day of the week – I am sure some of the critics would have no problem putting up billboards and sticking information in people's faces when seeking to get elected. We all do that and we often irritate people, with the consequence that we have to shift the billboards. There are laws, rules and guidelines. It is fine to dismiss Youth Defence and others, but it must be borne in mind that while they have gone over the top on certain occasions, they and the young people of Ireland should not be tarred with the same brush. I was proud to walk down O'Connell Street on Sunday morning and I saw some Members of this House. We were met with some awful taunts. I do not refer to myself alone – I am used to it – but also to ordinary men, women and children. They were taunted by people proclaiming to be great liberators and to be pro-choice. If they had their way, we would not have been there at all. We would have been running to the gardaí as we would have been attacked. Is that what they call modern-day democracy, the object of which is to shake us all, bring us into the new world and liberalise the whole country? Any country that has introduced abortion to account for suicidal ideation has regretted it.

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