Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The debate on abortion has been ongoing for a long number of years, and in that time a strong case has been made that information should be made available to everyone in society so that better decisions can be made. I have always agreed with that, even though many on the pro-life side may have sought a reduction in information on access to abortion. I have always believed that information is key when people are making decisions. Information is not a burden and it is not a threat to anybody. This amendment does not seek to reduce access to information about abortion.

Some people will say that the type of information collected will be used in a particular way in an effort to stigmatise or create difficulties for people who seek to access abortion. I point to the position in Britain, where a four-page document is collected by the doctors involved in the provision of abortion. That information is then used for research and policy development and helps people understand exactly what is happening within the system. Elected representatives can then develop legislation to address some of the issues found in that research. In the Committee on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution we found out that the main reasons for abortion are socio-economic. Information on people's socio-economic situation allows us to understand exactly who the people most affected by abortion are. If that information is not collected, it becomes much harder to focus resources necessary to alleviate some of those socio-economic problems.

In New York State a number of years ago, there were more abortions carried out on African-Americans than there were live births in a particular year. There are variations in the rate of abortion among certain sectors of society. If the information is deleted or ignored, we are blinded to particular experiences, and as a result it is far more difficult to address those particular experiences. We should not be afraid of collecting information on this particular service. The more information we have the more likely it is that we will be able to design better policy in the future, and the more likely it is that we will be able to review the delivery of these services with an educated mind.

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