Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I fully support the need for women always to receive factual information when receiving counselling in a crisis pregnancy situation. I do not believe there is a single person in this House who would disagree with that. However, I have to raise concerns about the motivation behind the legislation being put forward today. The proposed legislation cannot be discussed without looking at the background that led to today’s move. It is very clear that the sole motivation for this amendment was a newspaper report about a certain anti-abortion agency. It is impossible not to notice the double standards at play here and the way the Minister for Health and those putting forward today’s amendment ignored the outrageous behaviour and counselling practices at the Irish Family Planning Association, IFPA, clinics.

In 2012, IFPA counsellors were found to be telling women they could lie to their doctors and say they had a miscarriage, and not an abortion, if complications arose after their abortion. I find it very hard to understand why the Minister for Health has never condemned this scandalous and dangerous advice that was given to women, which put their lives at risk. To think that the same agency advised women on how to illegally import abortion pills to consume without any medical supervision adds to this terrible scandal. The fact is that the IFPA receives State funding, but the anti-abortion agency that motivated the debate here today does not receive any such funding. Surely there is something amiss when the Minister for Health sits back and does nothing when a State-funded body is found to be engaging in such reckless behaviour.

It is important that we keep all this in mind when the current discussion is under way. The public deplore double standards and rightly so. I would have no difficulty supporting changes to make counselling safer for women but I have well-based concerns about the reasons behind today’s proposed changes. There is nothing fair and objective about targeting one side of this debate while turning a blind eye to the extreme wrongdoings on the other side.

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