Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is the allegation being made to which I am responding. Let us play it out. What would happen if we were to pass this amendment is that if there were screening to determine gender, the law would state something along the lines that a woman could have a termination if the foetus was male but could not if the foetus was female. That would be the essential implication. If there were screening for a disability, the law would state that if the foetus was deemed to be healthy, the pregnancy could be terminated, but if the foetus was deemed to have a disability, it could not be terminated. That is what would actually happen.

Let us talk about race. If we were able to screen to determine the race of the foetus, there would be a situation where if it was of a certain race or races, a termination would be allowed, but if it was of a certain other race or races, it would not be allowed.

There are people who passionately believe in the protection of life during pregnancy and I am not casting aspersions on anybody. The assertion that the Bill allows for termination on all of these grounds is incorrect. It could not be stronger in disallowing it and doctors to whom I have spoken about amendments such as this have said they get the issue and that the Bill states very clearly that a termination is not allowed, except in the four areas I mentioned. They have said the moment a grey area was introduced such as a hierarchy of permissable grounds, there would be a question about which gender or disability, for example. The question would be raised as to whether it was Down's syndrome, an intellectual or a physical disability. That would start to make life very grey and make the legislation very confusing. Several doctors have said that in their view it would weaken protections which disallow termination on the grounds of disability because it would start a conversation about whether a termination could be carried out, depending on the disability. Ultimately, we cannot live in a world where any woman would ever be in a situation before 12 weeks where she would be told that she could have a termination if it was one gender but not the other, that she could have a termination if the foetus was healthy but not unhealthy, or that she could have a termination if it was of a certain race but not of a certain other race.

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