Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I attended the hearings held in the Seanad Chamber and all of the debates on this legislation. One would be forgiven for believing this was a debate about some kind of legal concept that did not affect any individual but rather concerned the Supreme Court, the High Court, Europe and every lawyer and barrister in the country, that it had nothing to do with women, human life and how we live our lives. We have had sermons from the mount on several occasions and I am sure we will have another one because I saw the Deputy indicating again. Women have been lectured to. I do not take the view that men do not have a role to play in this issue. There are as many men as women who are feminists; there are men who are compassionate and realise women may find themselves in circumstances, not only as a result of rape or incest, where they simply cannot continue with a pregnancy. Compassion for their circumstances is fundamental.

The argument seems to have settled on the issue of suicide. The people who now think they know more about me than I know about myself have decided that women who are pregnant cannot be suicidal. That is a fallacy. They are of the view that of the 500 who die by suicide in this country every year - an unacceptable figure which is of concern to everyone in the House - none of them can be a pregnant woman because, if so, she is telling lies and faking it. That is deeply insulting. If the same people are saying that when a woman presents as being suicidal, psychiatrists cannot deal with the issue, on what are we spending our money? They deal with people who are suicidal every day of the week across a range of individuals and age groups, not just young men. They deal with middle-aged men, older men, young women and older women. Psychiatrists can say whether a person is in danger of dying by suicide. They do so every day of the week because that is their job and profession. However, it seems they cannot do so if the patient is a woman and she is pregnant. Frankly, I find the argument that they cannot do so amazing. In the case of those who trot out this line, it is not about pregnancy, it is about control. They look into their hearts and tell me what is best for me. I thought that kind of Ireland was gone, but it seems it is not.

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