Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have not spoken to date on these amendments and I want to make a contribution. It is a sensitive issue. While I oppose all of the amendments which have been tabled, I want to make a contribution given that they have been tabled to the debate.

I have looked at this area. I have looked at various reports and at various studies that have been carried out by universities, both within Europe and in the United States. For example, on the issue has been raised about women who are travelling to England to have abortions as a result of unborn children being diagnosed with fatal foetal abnormalities, there was a carried out by the British Department of Health over a ten-year period in 20 hospitals in the United Kingdom between 1995 and 2004.

It showed that 3,189 abortions were carried out on unborn children who had disabilities or fatal foetal abnormalities. Of that number, 102 or, one in 30, of those children were born alive and left to die on sterilised trays in operating theatres. It is important to point out that fact.

We know that almost 200,000 abortions are carried out in the UK every year and I obtained the figures from the British Department of Health. Around 1%, or 2,000 of them, are applicable in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities or unborn children with disabilities and around 33% relate to Down's syndrome. The point I made about Down's syndrome is valid. Around 700 unborn children are aborted in England because they would have had the syndrome had they been born. I know many people with Down's syndrome who play an active part in citizenship in this country and represent us at the Special Olympics. Senators from all sides of the House have been great proponents of the Special Olympics and it is important to acknowledge those facts during the debate.

Another study conducted in the United Stated by the pro-choice organisation, Planned Parenthood, found that 6% of all abortions performed there are due to the discovery of fatal foetal abnormalities or children with disabilities. It would be wrong to say that the matter is wide-ranging and affects many children, and I do not insinuate that has been said. We are talking about a small number of cases so we must be careful to frame legislation using best medical practice.

I draw the attention of the Minister of State and the House to a report entitled Maternal and Neonatal Health Better in Abortion Averse Ireland than Great Britain that was carried out for the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. I shall quote some of the article but will not go into great detail. I have copies of the report if the Minister of State or any Members wish to read the research. The article reads:

Comparing national health data over a period of 40 years that showed better maternal and neonatal outcomes in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, where abortion is illegal or highly restricted, than in Great Britain, where abortion has been legal since 1968, according to an article published in this summer's issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Researchers Byron C. Calhoun, M.D., of West Virginia University-Charleston, John M. Thorp, M.D., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Patrick Carroll, M.A., of Britain's Pension and Population Research Institute (PAPRI) examined maternal mortality, stillbirth rates, and preterm births.

Irish women can travel overseas to Great Britain or the continent to obtain abortions, but Irish abortion rates continue to be low. The authors calculate total abortion rates,TARs, analogous to total fertility rates,TFRs, of 0.13 for the Republic and 0.09 for Northern Ireland in 2011, compared with 0.52 for England and Wales, 0.36 for Scotland, and 0.6 for Sweden. About one third of English women are likely to experience an abortion, compared with less than one tenth of Irish women, they state.

Since 1968, maternal mortality has declined much more steeply in Ireland than in Great Britain. In the last decade, the article reports maternal mortality of three per 100,000 in the Republic of Ireland compared with six per 100,000 in England and Wales.

A history of prior induced abortion is-----