Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 41:

In page 14, line 29, to delete "or section 14certification" and substitute ", section 14certification or section 23certification".

Amendment No. 41 relates to certification of the records that are kept and the fact that practitioners and people carrying out abortion procedures will be expected to keep records. In the discussion on previous amendments, the Minister and many others set their faces against any compassion or intervention whereby the unfortunate unborn baby would be given medicine or an injection for pain relief. Amendment No. 38 dealt with the most basic human right of all time. I hate equating this with the animal world but many of us born and raised on farms, particularly on mixed farms, understand what is involved, as do people with pets. More importantly, those involved in the equine industry understand the effort, the special funds, the special scanning machines and everything else necessary to ensure the safe delivery of prize foals.

The legislation will be passed and none of the amendments - reasonable and humane as they are and so badly needed for humanity's sake - to offer pain relief where an abortion goes wrong have been accepted. We have given the figures from Canada, England and other jurisdictions where large numbers of babies have been born during abortions and survived. Deputy O'Connell and others ridiculed us for moving the amendment and told us to visit a maternity hospital or a neonatal unit. I have made such visits, as have most of my colleagues. We are all proud parents and grandparents. We also have constituents who, every day of the week, have the joy of bringing new life into this world. This is especially important because tá Mí na Nollag ag teacht Dé Sathairn and that encourages to think about our Creator and the joy Christmas brings. We have been lectured about visiting those places. We have been told that we are insensitive and inhumane and that we listened to fairy stories and fiction about the woman we met. Hundreds and thousands of other people also listened to her story. Listening to what she has to say would bring tears from a stone. She has now bonded with her mother, who was forced to have an abortion and there are now grandchildren. We saw what was forced on that woman because of financial circumstances. It was not fiction. She survived the abortion and is now able to tell that tale all over world in her 42nd year. She came here to talk about it.

The amendment makes a very small change regarding certification in order that there might be records kept and accountability and some transparency, albeit for the wrong reason as far as I am concerned, in the context of the taking of human life. We do not have carte blanche. It would not be for me anyway because I am a layperson. Earlier, Deputy Harty spoke about situations whereby it would not happen in Ireland. I will not question his medical expertise. I would not even dream of doing so. I would not be able to and it would be wrong of me to try to do so. However I would question his judgment as to why it would never happen here. He mentioned the legislation in the context of the 12-week gestation period, but we know that, in the reckless money-grabbing industry that abortion is throughout the world, there will be late-term and surgical abortions. We know this. Our eyes and ears are closed to the facts, to the information that is there, to the records worldwide and to the industry we are discussing. It is a money-craving industry that involves the sale of body parts and everything else. How can we be sure this will not happen here? We cannot guarantee it.

The intended delivery of a baby can go wrong and unfortunately has gone wrong. There is great grief. Others have mentioned fatal foetal abnormality. I do not want to be repetitive but I travelled to Geneva with a brave cohort of ladies from Ireland and other countries to testify at the United Nations in order to try to get that horrible criminal terminology removed from the vocabulary relating to healthcare and children. Despite the diagnosis, some of them live to be minutes, hours, days or weeks old. I know of parishes that have had the most joyous celebrations of people with a life limiting diagnosis. The HSE has adopted the phrase "life-limiting conditions" instead of "fatal foetal abnormalities".

There have been celebrations of life.

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The mother has the joyous experience of carrying the baby to full term, feeling the baby kick, the delivery, holding the baby, its first breath and giving it its first food and drink before having to part. However, she has the fingerprints and the footprints, and she has had the joy of creation even if the baby is delivered not healthy and with a life-limiting condition. She has the joy of having it for hours, days, weeks or months. Then there is the sadness, grief and trauma but, importantly, there is a funeral and a marked grave that the parents can visit. All the neighbours - ní neart go cur le chéile - and the meitheal of the community come to help at the wake. That is what we do in Ireland, certainly in rural Ireland and, indeed, in urban Ireland as well. I will not demonise urban Ireland. That is what we are about.

This amendment provides for certification of what happens in the delivery ward, which it should be, although in this case it is the destruction ward. That is the sad thing for our hospitals. I salute the midwives, nurses and the neonatal care, but the two will be side by side in small cubicles in hospitals that are overstretched, overutilised and under pressure. That is the reason I am proposing the amendment.

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