Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am speaking on my amendment No. 40. In tabling the amendment I was motivated by evidence from the United States where in several states abortion clinics have a legal obligation that a pregnant woman presenting herself for an abortion is shown a scan of the unborn baby prior to any procedure being carried out. I am grateful to Senator Ó Domhnaill who gave me a statistic based on evidence that in 90% of such cases, the pregnant woman changed her mind and the baby was saved. My sole motivation in drafting this amendment was in the hope that at the very latest stage of the process under which section 9 operates, a life could be saved and in fact the two lives could be saved.

However, I have further reflected and spoken to a large number of women because I believed women could give an insight into the matter. I have no wish nor was it ever my intention to inflict any further emotional or psychological pain on an already distressed mentally ill pregnant woman, who has gone through the legal processes, has been reviewed and assessed by a team of psychiatrists and an obstetrician, has arrived at the point of certification, and is at the institution where the procedure is to be carried out. I would not wish for one second to add in any way to the distress that is obviously there anyway. For that reason I will more than likely withdraw the amendment. However, I wish to put on record my reasons for drafting it in the first place.