Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This amendment is about the period of up to 12 weeks. The debate in this regard began with references to race, sex and disability and ended up focused on disability because it is possible to tug at the heart strings of the population by consistently referring to people with Down's syndrome despite the fact that the Down Syndrome Ireland has asked people advocating what is proposed not to do so. The reason the period is up to 12 weeks without restriction relates to the existence and widespread use of the abortion pill and to the evidence given to the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution and the Citizen's Assembly on the use of that pill. The danger of letting women and girls take abortion pills in isolation without medical supervision is unconscionable. We have a duty to ensure that when these pills are administered people have support, cover and medical supervision. Deputies can table whatever amendments they like. Even if those amendments are passed, that would not stop people accessing abortion pills on the Internet and putting their health and lives at risk. It is nonsensical in the extreme for Deputies to use this to try to pull at the heartstrings of the population when they have been asked by the relevant representative organisations not to do so. The case for using this amendment in the context of race and sex has been shown to be nonsensical and the only thing those advocating it have to go on is disability. Their choice in that regard is immoral in the extreme.

See this speech in context