Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 35:

In page 11, to delete lines 1 to 4 and substitute the following:"(3) The termination of pregnancy shall not be carried out by a medical practitioner unless a period of not less than 3 days has elapsed from—

(a) the date of certification under subsection (2)by that medical practitioner, or

(b) where a certification was previously made in respect of the pregnancy by another medical practitioner for the purposes of subsection (2), the date of that previous certification.

(4) A termination of pregnancy to which the certification referred to insubsection (2) relates shall be carried out as soon as may be after the period referred to in subsection (3)(a)or (b), as the case may be, has elapsed but before the pregnancy has exceeded 12 weeks of pregnancy.".

I previously spoke to amendments Nos. 13 and 29, both of which preceded this grouping, and set out the substance of my amendment, which aims to address the difficulty that arises if the certifying medical practitioner is, without exception, required to carry out the termination of pregnancy, specifically when we considered the rostering issues and practical realities of medical practice in a hospital setting following a three-day period. For this reason, I propose this amendment to section 14, which would allow a second medical practitioner to become involved following a three-day period should the first be unavailable. The amendment keeps the safeguards and legal requirements that section 14 currently contains but aims to clarify the pathway for accessing the service and to avoid creating an additional barrier. The effect of the amendment I have tabled is to provide that where a medical practitioner has formed the reasonable opinion, in good faith, that a woman's pregnancy has not exceeded 12 weeks, and certified that opinion, and the woman has fulfilled the three-day period, a second medical practitioner may carry out the procedure without a further time period needing to elapse where he or she has formed the reasonable opinion, in good faith, that the pregnancy has not exceeded 12 weeks and has certified that opinion. From a substantive point of view, we debated many of these issues last night.

Amendment No. 36 is a different version of that. I propose my amendment, No. 35, for the reasons we discussed last night with regard to amendments Nos. 13 and 29.

See this speech in context