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

I remind the Ministers that the dilemma for the doctors, the psychiatrists and the obstetricians was the repugnant one posed by the fact that if a mother refuses treatments, the law says that a medical procedure is lawful. Jim Sheehan, who founded the Blackrock Clinic, the Hermitage and Galway Clinic, said, "Peter, you are to use the words 'kill the baby' ". We have heard an awful lot about women and I agree that women's health is paramount, but babies are people too.

As Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said, 3,500 babies are aborted every day in America. That is one 9/11 every day. These are babies who someone fathered and to whom someone would have been a mother, only that they lost their lives.

People on both sides have a conscience in this matter. Having informed their conscience of the facts, including the repugnant dilemma presented to us by psychiatrists, those Members who disagree with the Bill have to pay a cost. That is the difference between the two sides. We are chucked out of our parties. Two Members have said they have misgivings about the Bill, but they will still vote for it. Something is not right for them about the Bill. If something is not right, then something is wrong. Come on. Wake up everybody.

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