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

It has been said by several figures on the pro-abortion side that we need abortion in Ireland due to the number of women travelling to other jurisdictions for abortions. As I have already stated, Ireland’s abortion rates are much lower than Britain’s. It is true that much more needs to be done to help the women who return home after going through an abortion. It has been argued by the Minister, Deputy Harris, that we must have abortion to protect the nameless and faceless women who travel to England for an abortion. These women should be cared for in Ireland after going through such a traumatic experience but there are several other nameless and faceless women who did not go through an abortion because they had the chance to think about what they were going to do. These women openly discuss how they considered going through an abortion only to give birth to their child. The answer to the complicated issues that surround pregnancy should not be abortion. Abortion is an old-fashioned cure and it simply allows future Governments to ignore some of the most vulnerable in society. It allows for women to be made feel even more vulnerable. Abortion does not give a woman choice but it takes it away. This is because vulnerable women are made to feel abortion is the only answer by groups who are in the business of providing abortions. Ultimately, abortion ends a life prematurely before that life can have any chance to speak up or stand up for itself.

Two years ago we celebrated the centenary of the 1916 Rising. When we think of the Rising, every one of us thinks of the Proclamation. An essential sentence in the Proclamation is the promise to cherish the children of the nation equally. Let us not sully the memory of those who fought for our nation's freedom by taking away the right to life from society’s most vulnerable. Let us cherish the children of the nation equally at every stage of life from beginning to end. Let us not allow abortion to become legal in our country. Let us instead make sure that no mother feels she has to end the life of her child because she sees no other way out. Let us provide families in difficult situations with what they need to raise their child. Let us work together to make sure no child in this country is thought of as a choice but rather as a valued human being. Let us ensure that every child in Ireland is given the right to life. Let us stand up for mothers and their unborn babies. Let us protect the eighth amendment. In doing so, we would be doing something truly radical and positive by speaking up for life at a time when other countries have lost respect for the dignity and value of each new and unique individual. There is nothing radical about bringing in laws like other countries that have been shown over the past 40 years to discriminate against unborn babies up to birth. Let us be truly radical. Let us speak up for life and defend the eighth amendment with every ounce of energy we have.

Like a good man in my own parish of Goleen said to me one time about abortion, while there is breath in my body, I will never take the breath from somebody else's body. I certainly will not be doing that while I am here in Dáil Éireann.

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