Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

People thought about it very carefully and they thought about it long and hard. It was not an easy decision for many people. They teased through the 12 weeks and why it was set at 12 weeks and this was a big feature of that referendum debate as well.

We as a people have decided on repealing the eighth amendment in the knowledge that if we do so, the Government will bring forward legislation that will allow for termination in early pregnancy up to 12 weeks without specific indication. To amend the legislation in the way the Senator is endeavouring to do today would make that inoperable because his wording is actually saying is, "a termination of the pregnancy concerned is not being sought because of...". How does one prove the "not being sought?" Are we going to psychologically assess the woman, look into her deepest darkest thoughts? How are we going to determine that thought process?

We made a conscious decision to trust women in obtaining medical advice from their doctors to access early termination in our country without specific indication. To do anything else would be to deviate from that. I need to be clear. This Bill does not allow termination on the ground of disability, race or sex. The race or sex grounds I find even more spurious in terms of the early pregnancy issues but it does not allow that. What the Bill does allow is that a woman is not second-guessed, judged or asked to give a reason pre-12 weeks. To alter that in any way would be to substantially divert from what we told the people of Ireland we would do and what has been in the draft Bill published in March and every version of it published ever since and was a key finding of the Oireachtas committee's report.