Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Terminations in every other jurisdiction for our patients are based on the 100% destruction of the foetus whereas in the limited cases that this legislation will apply there is a completely different ethos. That should be the basis of how we discuss this legislation during the course of the night. This is the only contribution I will make on this.

The ethos of the Bill is about the early delivery of the baby from any point up to 22 to 23 weeks. It is not about the destruction at all. That means for all of the second half of the pregnancy there is the possibility that we can successfully deliver the baby and give him or her the full care that he or she requires, and that is where the pregnancy is viable.

In all other cases of very early pregnancy that are being talked about, some Members have mentioned here pregnancies of 12 weeks and under. Young girls are buying RU-486 on the Internet to terminate their pregnancies with no care from doctors. We are not involved, we do not know what is going on. We only see the complications.

When I was a medical student, one incident I always remember is that of the late Ms Ann Lovett, a young girl who delivered her baby in Granard, County Longford. She died and the baby died. It was her ignorance and it was the arrogance of others who decided that they were not going to be the guardians of her wound that contributed to what happened there.

See this speech in context