Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

The ordering of the debate by the Government is bizarre. It brings the Oireachtas into disrepute and is an insult to Members and the public generally. Any reasonable person would have adjourned the debate to tomorrow. I have supported the legislation on Second and Committee Stages and will support it later this morning when a division is called. However, it is limited and restrictive legislation which should and could, within the terms of the Constitution, provide for terminations in the case of inevitable miscarriage and fatal foetal abnormalities. I will address those issues later in the debate when I move amendments on those issues.

Opponents of section 9 wish to give the impression that it involves the introduction of abortion on demand and that women who are suicidal will be able to get a certificate and termination with ease. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those suggestions are at best disingenuous and at worst dishonest. It is important to remind ourselves that the conditions attached to the section and legislation generally are onerous and restrictive. They require a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother as distinct from her health and that such substantial risk can only be averted by a termination. It also provides that three medical practitioners must certify jointly under the section. These are onerous and restrictive conditions. It is a near certainty that those who wish to access a termination on those grounds will continue to do so in other jurisdictions, mainly Britain, rather than subject themselves to the onerous and restrictive conditions provided for in the Bill.

Opponents of this section and the Bill in general constantly argue that the majority of the people are opposed to the condition now known as the suicide condition. Nothing could be further from the truth. This argument is, at best, disingenuous and, at worst, dishonest. We know that there is incontrovertible evidence that the majority of the people support the X case judgment in the case of suicide. The evidence is there for all to see. It is the result of two referendums in 1992 and 2002 which clearly supported the inclusion of suicide under this general heading. I support the Bill, limited though it is. I have supported it in the past and will support it tonight, or rather this morning.

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