Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy O'Connell, who has since left, talked about Abigail Aiken, who appeared before the committee. Yes, she is an expert. I am not questioning her expertise on this but I am questioning her bias coming before us and the abject refusal to allow women hurt by abortion before the committee, to listen to them or to watch an animated video of an abortion. There was just a closing of eyes and a locking out of the whole situation. The term "makey-up" is out there now. Deputies still will not get away from the term "makey-up" when talking about abortion regret. Abortion regret is more than a term. It is well known. If Deputy O'Connell chose to do so, she would meet plenty of women who have experienced it. There are many of them. I refer to the videos that went around at the weekend and the one brave woman out there. Deputy O'Connell said we had no empirical evidence. We have plenty of published evidence. It is there to be seen if she chooses to look at it, but no, she would get no headlines out of that.

As for the language used, the question was asked where we are going to incarcerate the woman. We are not talking about incarcerating anyone. There is no mention of it. We are talking about looking after people who are ill and avoiding mental health issues. Trying to go back to such language, as I said last night, is an effort to be as wicked as possible to get headlines.

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