Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is good to see a few Members tonight who are willing to stand for something and put it on the record. Time will thank them for it. Tomorrow will not, but time will.

This Bill before us is wrong on the suicide issue. Every Member here is as interested in the protection of women's lives as they are in the lives of the unborn. We want to put the unborn life at the same level as that of the living person. In England, up to 6 million abortions have been carried out since 1967. Is anyone seriously trying to tell me that 72% of the people who had these abortions were suicidal? We are being asked to believe that over 70% of 6 million would have committed suicide if they had not had an abortion. I do not believe that.

The statistics in Ireland show that in our three maternity hospitals, out of 675,000 thankfully successful births, only two people committed suicide. They had other personal issues and it was nothing to do with their pregnancies. Everyone knows that it is natural for a person who is going to have a baby to be more concerned about her health and the protection and nurturing of that child. We are being told, however, that suicide is a massive problem. That is the lie that is being told here.

In 2008, 1.2 million abortions took place in the United States. In 2000, there were 1.36 million. Since the Roe v. Wade case in 1973, there have been 53 million legal abortions in the US. Were the majority of those ladies going to commit suicide? Today, the price of a legal abortion in the USA is €451. That is the price of a life in America. There are 3,500 legal abortions every day in America and 125,000 abortions per day worldwide. In China, over the past 40 years there were 330 million abortions. In Russia, for every ten live births there are 13 abortions. Every one of those people - they are people - denied their right to live is as every bit as good as me, as Deputy Mattie McGrath, as any of the Ministers. They are every bit as good as any one of us. What we will do later tonight is to introduce this into our country. It is wrong and sad, and it will be remembered for a long time that it was the wrong decision. It had to be based on something, so it was based on the suicide issue, which is not an issue. That is the lie. In Ireland, out of 675,000 live births, two ladies committed suicide.

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