Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Some 30% of pregnancies in America and England end in abortion. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae referred to it as 1.2 million babies every year in America or 3,500 a day. This amounts to a 9/11 every day but we do not hear from them because they are little. They do not have relatives except the parents, who allow it to happen. People might think this is extreme but it is extreme.

Deputy Kirk made a very good suggestion, that the Parliament should ask the Taoiseach to reconsider this. That was an excellent and seriously sound suggestion. Deputy Tóibín made an excellent contribution and the Minister of State, Deputy Creighton, was spot on, with a clear focus on how we have travelled to where we are in the terms of the law.

I met Hugh O'Flaherty after the second Lions rugby match against Australia. I met him socially in a tennis club of which I am a member and I did not go there to mention anything to him but I was delighted to read what he wrote last weekend, six days later. We ought to sit up and pay attention to it. He was a Supreme Court judge for that case. Like the other five members of the Supreme Court, he used his professional skill and judgment, which was limited to the facts in front of him, as pointed out by Deputy Michael McNamara. The facts, which were very limited, were the experience of psychologist with six years experience-----

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