Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This represents a new low in health care provision. The Supreme Court's judgment concerned an early termination and a different result might have been achieved if it had concerned a later termination. Dr. Sam Coulter Smith, master of the Rotunda Hospital, who gave the consensus view from the hospital said the inclusion of suicidal intent as grounds for a termination was not evidence-based, posed major ethical dilemmas for obstetricians and could lead to an increase in the number of women seeking terminations. Currently, all over the world obstetricians intervene to deliver a baby early if the mother develops serious physical problems such as very high blood pressure, toxaemia in pregnancy, etc. However, this is not termed an abortion if it happens in the third trimester owing to the skill of the obstetrician in bringing the pregnancy to as near to term as possible and by intervening when the balance starts to shift from the mother or sometimes the baby. The proposed legislation is unclear on what will be termed an abortion, which will skew the data collected for monitoring. This is also causing a problem for obstetricians and was mentioned at the recent Oireachtas hearings.

All pregnancies terminate, with the majority doing so at term, but terminating a pregnancy early in the third trimester because of a physical illness is different from intervening to prevent suicide on two counts. First, the medical evidence in favour of intervening is much stronger in the case of a physical illness and can be validated. Second, as the babies are wanted, both mothers and obstetricians do all they can to save both as far as practical with respect to the timing of the intervention.

I have more to say, but we will have an opportunity on Committee and Report Stages. It is deeply alarming that we are introducing a culture that will see abortion legalised. I do not subscribe to the argument that it is confined legislation. How can we say it is confined if the limit in Canada is 16 weeks, in Germany, 12 weeks and in the United Kingdom, 24 weeks and that we will have abortion available up to full term?