Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As I said, all we are looking for is for information to be collected that is collected in many other countries. We were long enough shouting about all the other countries and the great abortion laws they have. Now we seem to be running away from them. What are we scared of? What are we trying to cover up? I have mentioned women having eight abortions. I am not one bit ashamed to do so because I am protecting women by doing so. Right across the world, where there are multiple abortions, there are many horrific reasons for them. The woman could be abused in such a situation and this needs to be highlighted and recorded. They need to be protected.

The insults thrown at us from across the floor are astonishing, to say the least. I fully support anyone giving their views and they are well entitled to do so, but I am talking about the insults they throw across at us. We have our views, which may be different to theirs. Their actions are undemocratic, but that is the way they feel. Last week one Deputy across the floor insulted, in my view, thousands and thousands of women across the world, one of whom lives in Ireland, by stating that survivors of abortions were simply a fairy story. One lady decided she had had enough of listening to that Deputy and recorded her views about what happened to her. She lives in Ireland and she gave her own story. She is a survivor of a failed abortion and she was highly insulted by the Deputy's comments that she was part of a fairy story. She is not part of a fairy story. She is a human being who lives in this Irish Republic. We should not be ashamed to discuss these issues as they come before us. This is the sad situation in which we in this Dáil have left ourselves. Deputies are trying to put fear into us and are feeding the media with the wrong stories, but we will keep speaking here because this is totally wrong. I believe we should record all data to protect women.

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