Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I am in favour of holding this referendum to give the people their opportunity to vote on this issue. It is one of the most important social issues that will come before this Dáil. It is an issue which involves morals, ethics, society, religion, biology and deeply personal issues. No one answer will satisfy all those issues or satisfy everyone.

This issue of termination of pregnancy has the capacity to be deeply divisive. Termination of pregnancy has been a feature of cultures and society throughout the millennia. The nature of termination of pregnancy has moved away from back street abortions experienced through the early parts of this century and many other centuries and it has become a medicalised and controlled issue for the safety of the mother. No longer will women die from a mismanaged, unsupervised termination.

However, there is no escaping the biology of embryology. It is a linear development of a baby from conception to delivery. The interference of that developmental process by termination of pregnancy is the ending of the life of a human being, and there is no way we can get away from that reality.

See this speech in context