Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to be able to speak and I am glad that the Minister is here for the debate. In November 2012, undercover investigators revealed that the IFPA clinics and other clinics that are overseen and funded by the HSE’s crisis pregnancy programme were involved in actively encouraging women in crisis pregnancies to mislead and lie to their doctors about their abortions if complications were to arise after the abortion procedure. That is a fact. The advice was described at the time as reckless and dangerous. Deputy Burton was a Minister at that time and later became Tánaiste. She did not have any problem with it at that time even though I called several times a year for an investigation. When the investigation became public, Dr. Sam Coulter Smith, not me, said that he was aware of cases in which women had died because they did not tell their doctors they had an abortion. That is also very serious. It is disturbing that such poor advice would be given to Irish women in crisis pregnancies at such a difficult time. At least Deputy Jan O'Sullivan stated here tonight that the advice from the other side was also wrong, dangerous and reckless. She is the only person to have acknowledged that so far, including the Minister.

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