Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As an adopted person, I have always been deeply conflicted on the issue of abortion. When people speak about unwanted pregnancies, I cannot help but to reflect on the fact that I was the unplanned daughter of a single woman. When she became pregnant in 1978, she did not have the option of keeping me such that I could grow up as part of her family. I am grateful that through adoption I was given a chance to be part of another family and to get to know my birth mother and half-siblings later in life. When some individuals on the pro-choice side speak about abortion as a simple women's rights issue, without a thought for the life of the unborn child, it upsets me greatly. The lack of compassion some of the most extreme pro-life groups extend to women in distress, particularly those who are victims of rape or whose lives are at risk, is just as distressing. My view is that while abortion is never desirable, in some circumstances the consequences of it not being available are worse. We do not yet know if the termination for which Savita is said to have pleaded would have resulted in her life being saved. Perhaps we will never know with absolute certainty, even after the various investigations have concluded. What is clear, and was clear long before her death, is that the failure to legislate for the judgment in the X case has left doctors in an unacceptable legal limbo and women without the protection they deserved.