Dáil debates

Wednesday, 5 December 2018

Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Report Stage (Resumed)

 

7:35 pm

Photo of Joan CollinsJoan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was not going to intervene in this debate because I had made a conscious decision to let it go through, even with some of the comments made by anti-choice Deputies in the Chamber. However, I want to make the important point that a referendum was held and that one of the key issues was trusting women. The people were clear that women should not have to travel abroad to have an abortion, as well as on the periods of 12 weeks, 24 weeks and fatal foetal abnormalities.

Savita Halappanavar’s husband said in his evidence that one of the nurses or midwives in the theatre had said they could not perform an abortion on his wife because we were living in Catholic Ireland and that it was illegal. Let us take as an example an emergency in dealing with a pregnancy at 2 a.m. and three of the emergency team are conscientious objectors. If amendment No. 51 were to be accepted, we could have a situation where those three medical practitioners would be able to say they did not have to pass the case to anybody else. Then what happened to Savita Halappanavar would happen again. That would be the logical conclusion of accepting the amendment.

The potential consequences of amendments that are not thought out or do not reflect the essence of what the legislation is trying to achieve must be taken on board. There are major problems with our health service. I am the first Deputy every week to raise in the House the crisis in our health service. For example, I have challenged the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, about services in the community healthcare organisation, CHO, 7 area. The crisis is the reason I am an advocate of Sláintecare. In that context, what this amendment could mean must be considered.

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