Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I understand that and I am grateful to the Cathaoirleach. As I said yesterday, I do not want to repeat myself in any way and I have tried to avoid doing that. However, everything that is important has to be put on the record because lives are at stake here.

My colleague, Senator Noone, rightly points out that the committee report undergirded the legislation. It is true. It was the springboard for the legislation. However, I was fair and accurate and was not doing any spinning or twisting of facts when I said that there is a contradiction between the committee's desire to exclude abortion on grounds of disability and its other desire, which I disagreed with, for abortion without reason up to 12 weeks. Moreover, "on demand" is not insensitive language, although it is slightly inaccurate language because there is a 72-hour window. That point I would concede but the language is far from being crude. It expresses in layperson's language a situation where one does not have to give a reason and is entitled to abortion on the basis of a demand. Again, accusing people of using crude language seems to be an effort to "emotivise" the debate, if such a word exists.