Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not understand how the right to life of the unborn and the right to life of the mother can be separate items at the point when the unborn cannot survive outside the womb. How can they be separate? We all like to think that we cherish the gift of life. It is an awful pity we were not as worried about the million people that have died in Iraq in the last 20 years, which we facilitated by allowing the Americans to use Shannon Airport.

I would like to remind the Minister what the UN special rapporteur, Anand Grover, said on the issue of the right to health:

Criminal laws and other legal restrictions on sexual and reproductive health may have a negative impact on the right to health in many ways, including by interfering with human dignity. Respect for dignity is fundamental to the realisation of all human rights. Dignity requires that individuals are free to make personal decisions without interference from the state, especially in an area as important and intimate as sexual and reproductive health.

Criminalisation generates and perpetrates stigma. Criminal laws and other legal restrictions disempower women, who may be deterred from taking steps to protect their health to avoid liability and out of fear of stigmatisation. The likely effects of the criminal penalties in the legislation is that they will make women afraid to disclose information to their doctors about previous abortions and to seek medical assistance in the event of complications arising from an illegal abortion.

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