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

The people of Ireland voted for abortion a couple of years ago but no one ever thought that there would be 6,666 abortions in 12 months. I met so many people who voted for it who are stunned by this. It is what it is.

The discussion today is about late-term abortions. It is about what a new study tells us about late-term abortions and babies born alive after abortion in Ireland.

A study, from UCC, recording the experience of ten foetal medicine specialists providing abortions for foetal anomalies in Irish maternity hospitals was published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The reaction of the doctors who are carrying out these late-term abortions in Ireland make for grim reading. One doctor described carrying out infanticide as "stabbing the baby in the heart". Others said it was "brutal" and "awful", and one revealed that "I remember getting sick out in the corridors afterwards because I thought it [the foeticide] was such an awful procedure and so dreadful".

We were assured that this would never happen and it is happening. It is wrong. It is a terrible, terrible wrong. We would like complete clarity on this from the Minister of State.

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