Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to a number of the amendments in this grouping. Last night I mentioned a minor worry I had about the absence of the words "imminent nor inevitable" which were part of the original Supreme Court judgment. To me, this is the critical point of the legislation because it will have most application in practice. I am talking particularly about women with pre-existing medical conditions, or those who develop such medical conditions during pregnancy, such that the pregnancy poses a threat to the life of the mother. In the current situation many women, after consulting doctors, are given information that leads them to travel to England. Many of the women concerned are very sick and some are undergoing cancer treatment. My hope for the legislation is that the practice will stop because that is the intent of the legislation. The point of it is to give effect to the Supreme Court judgment in the X case. The Minister has said this is the intent of the legislation and clearly believes it is. If so, it should be included in it to provide clarity. Its whole purpose is to provide clarity. Why would we miss this opportunity?

During the hearings it was clear to me from a presentation made by representatives of the Irish College of General Practitioners that their opinion was that the legislation would apply only in emergencies. If there is a lack of clarity, the practice of women having to travek to England will continue or, worse, doctors will procrastinate until a threat becomes imminent and may be irreversible. We should grasp the opportunity presented by the legislation to include the words in the Supreme Court judgment that the threat to life does not have to be imminent or inevitable. If we do not include them, I ask the Minister to include them in guidelines because the legislation is of real importance to women in this situation. There will be very few cases of suicide and I hope also emergencies will be few in number. Including these words in the legislation might reduce the number of emergencies.

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