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

This group of amendments includes Nos. 35, 37, 64, 108 and 110 in my name. The purpose of my proposals is to include in the legislation the full test in the X case judgment by adding the words "which may be neither immediate or inevitable" in the various sections. The objective here is to clarify for clinicians and for women the exact position as set out in the X case decision. I do not understand why the Minister has not included this particular qualification in the legislation. He has said time and again that the Bill is implementing the judgment in the X case. What he has done, however, is include some but not all of the test set out in that case.

The report of the expert group on abortion, in section 6.2, Test to be Applied, states:

The Supreme Court in the X case held that the correct test was that a termination of pregnancy was permissible if it was established as a matter of probability that:1) there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother; and

2) this risk can only be averted by the termination of her pregnancy.

The section goes on to say: "It is not necessary for medical practitioners to be of the opinion that the risk to the woman's life is inevitable or immediate." That is the test set out in the X case, as supported by the expert group. The Minister tells us he is implementing the X case decision and the recommendations of the expert group, yet he has left out this very important part of the test.

It is absolutely necessary to have clarity for clinicians and women in this situation. It is essential that this group of amendments be accepted by the Minister. It is more important that they be accepted and included in the legislation because the Minister and the Government have refused to deal with the question of inevitable miscarriage. The amendments would clarify the position for clinicians and women. The current position which will obtain after the passage of the legislation is that a medical condition due to pregnancy which is not life-threatening such as inevitable miscarriage must be allowed to become life-threatening for the necessary termination of pregnancy to be legal. That will continue to be the case after the legislation is passed, if it is not amended. The amendments I have tabled in this group are not as adequate as a provision dealing with inevitable miscarriage would be, but they would go some way towards clarifying the position for physicians and women. I do not understand why the Minister is refusing to include the full X case test in the legislation. I can only assume it is a question of political pandering to Fine Gael backbenchers.

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